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By Inazo Nitobe 



The Japanese Nation 



Its Land, Its People, and Its Life. With 
Special Consideration to Its Relations 
with the United States 



Bushido 



The Soul of Japan 



The Japanese Nation 

Its Land, Its People, and Its Life 

With Special Consideration to Its Relations with 
the United States 



By 

Inazo Nitobe, 

A.M.. Ph.ii., LL.D. 

President of the First National College, Japan 

Professor in the Imperial University of Tokyo 

Exchange Professor from Japan to American Universities 

Author of " Bushldo, the Soul of Japan," etc. 



With a Map 



G. P. Putnam's Sons 

New York and London 

Zhc 1ftnfcfterboc?ier ipress 

1912 



iTv 



Copyright, 191 2 

BY 

INAZO NITOBE 



Ube ftnicftcrbocfter press, *Rcw SJorft 






rj^ir 



::^ 



xso 

THE UNIVERSITIES OF 

BROWN 

COLUMBIA 

JOHNS HOPKINS 

VIRGINIA 

ILLINOIS 

MINNESOTA 

UNDER WHOSE AUSPICES WERE DELIVERED THE LECTURES WHICH 

GAVE IT BIRTH 

I DEDICATE THIS BOOK 

IN GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE 



PREFACE 

THE present work is the outcome of my labours 
as Japanese exchange professor in this coun- 
try, during the academic year of 1911-12, and 
I take this opportunity of explaining how my work 
began and ended. 

The idea of sending public men of note un- 
officially from this country to Japan and from 
Japan to the United States, owes its inception to 
Mr. Hamilton Holt of New York City. When 
his plan had been developed to a certain degree 
of feasibility, the task of carrying it into effect 
was accepted by President Nicholas Murray 
Butler of Columbia University, in whose hands 
the idea took the more practical if the less am- 
bitious form of an exchange professorship, and he 
interested certain typical universities to join in 
putting it into effect. After the enterprise was 
fairly launched, the responsibility for its continu- 
ance was passed on to, and made a part of, the 
work of the Carnegie Peace Endowment. My 
labours commenced after the project had reached 
its second stage of development — namely, while 
the Universities concerned had the matter in their 
immediate charge. 



VI 



Preface 



In the spring of last year, the six American 
Universities of Brown, Columbia, Johns Hopkins, 
Virginia, Illinois, and Minnesota— representing the 
Eastern, Southern, and Middle- Western portions 
of the Continent— united in instituting an ex- 
change of lecturers with Japan. The object of 
the scheme— as I take it— is the interchange of 
right views and sentiments between the two 
peoples, rather than a mutual giving and taking 
of strictly academic knowledge. The appointees, 
whether men of science or men of affairs or of 
literary reputation, are expected to be convoys of 
warm human feeling rather than of cold scientific 
truth. 

Through President Butler and our Embassy in 
Washington, negotiations were started between 
the said Universities and the Japanese Govern- 
ment. The latter expressed its readiness to meet 
the proposal; whereupon the association formed 
of those business men who visited this country a 
few years ago, entered into the spirit of the under- 
taking by assuming the financial responsibility, 
provided the Government would help by recom- 
mending a man for the task. 

Late in June, I was unexpectedly asked to come 
to the United States on this deHghtful, though 
arduous, mission, the Government releasing me 
for a year from the duties of my official posts as 
President of the First National College, as Pro- 
fessor of Colonial Policy in the Imperial Univer- 
sity of Tokyo, and as Adviser to the Formosan 



Preface vii 

Government. I accepted the honour with sincere 
pleasure and yet with trepidation. Is it necessary 
to explain why the appointment gave me pleasure? 
Reasons which will naturally suggest themselves 
to everyone — an enjoyable trip, meeting with con- 
genial people, renewing old acquaintance, taking 
my wife to her native home, the honour of being 
the first exchange professor from my country — all 
had their due share in my willingness to come. 
But there was a particular reason which made the 
proposal singularly attractive to me. Allow me 
to relate a personal incident. 

Nearly thirty years ago, when applying for 
admission to the University in Tokyo as a student, 
I selected English Literature for my minor course, 
in addition to my major study of Economics. The 
Dean of the Department of Literature questioned 
me as to my motive for combining these two 
apparently unrelated branches of learning. "I 
wish, sir, to be a bridge across the Pacific," I 
replied. On being pressed for further explanation, 
I threw aside the metaphor and told him of my 
desire to be a means of transmitting the ideas of 
the West to the East, and of the East to the West. 
Though it was a fancy of youth, it was a wish that 
had been slowl}^ forming during my collegiate 
days, and though the days of youth have long 
since gone by, the fancy has remained, waxing 
stronger with the progress of years. 

To transmit a thought from one to another may 
not require an intellect of high order or an original 



viii Preface 

cast of mind; but I am more than willing to play 
a second or even a third part, if I can thereby add 
a note — be it ever so low — toward the fuller har- 
mony of diverse nations or of discordant notions. 

Here then is my chief motive for accepting the 
responsibility of an untried duty which I did not 
enter upon boldly. No one knows better than 
myself how far short of its great object I have 
fallen, and — may I add? — ^how much farther I 
should have fallen if I had not had the constant 
assistance and never-failing attention of my wife. 
I must not omit a word of recognition for the 
loyal service rendered throughout my stay in the 
States by my friend and companion, Mr. Yusuke 
Tsurumi. 

The regular demands of the lectureship con- 
sisted in delivering in each University a course of 
eight addresses. For these I chose the subjects 
given in Chapters I to VI inclusive, and Chapters 
VIII and XI. Chapter VII — on Education — is 
based on an address made before the Barnard 
Club in Providence, and before the Teachers* Club 
in Columbia University, also before the Pedagogi- 
cal Seminary of Johns Hopkins. The chapter on 
Japan as Coloniser is an amplification of remarks 
made, without notes, in the Japan Conference held 
at Clark University, and, later, before the National 
Geographic Association in Washington. Chapter 
X is a reproduction of the paper sent to the meet- 
ing of the American Historical Association in 
Buffalo, December, 191 1, when illness prevented 



Preface ix 

tne from attending in person. The final chapter, 
with some slight verbal changes, is a copy of the 
Convocation Address which I had the honour of 
making at the University of Chicago near the close 
of last year. The first address which I delivered 
in this country was in response to the invitation of 
Leland Stanford Jr. University; but, as it contains 
a number of local allusions, I have placed it last as 
an AjDpendix. 

Should this book fall into the hands of any one 
of some forty thousand hearers, whom it has been 
my good fortune to address, in the one hundred 
and sixty-six lectures and speeches I have made 
in the course of my year's sojourn in this land, he 
will find that none of them is exactly like that to 
which he listened; but he will recognise that the 
general trend of thought and message is the same. 

To hearer and reader I feel like apologising for 
not selecting more instructive subjects and for not 
presenting in a more interesting manner the themes 
chosen. It was indeed solicitude regarding the 
choice and treatment of subjects which caused me 
to embark upon this mission with trepidation. 
Until I faced my first audience at Brown Univer- 
sity, I had not had the least intimation as to the 
character and interests of those who might favour 
me with their presence. While I was preparing 
two or three of my lectures, before leaving my 
country, how little did I anticipate that more than 
half of my lecture-halls would be graced by ladies ! 
My original manuscripts were prepared with a 



X 



Preface 



small group of students in view, and when I com- 
pare these with the book that is now presented to 
the public, I am astonished at my own unsophisti- 
cated ideas of ten months ago. How in this coun- 
try one comes to adjust one's thought and speech 
to a broad-cultured, general public! As I have 
grown more and more intimate with my audience, 
I confess my regret that I did not confine the whole 
field of my lectures to more specialised subjects, — 
particularly to the relations between the United 
States and Japan; but when that regret came — 
regrets are rarely timely visitors ! — it was too late 
to write the course anew. I am happy to add, 
however, that my regret, if late, was brief o A 
month before my duties ended, a countryman of 
mine — Kiyoshi Kawakami — brought forward the 
result of his serious and careful study regarding 
American-Japanese relations, treating the sub- 
ject in a far more judicious form and attractive 
style than I could ever do. 

If then my regret was short-lived, what of the 
misgivings with which I left Japan? It is only just 
for me to admit that these had largely vanished, 
ere my work was finished ; but for this fact I claim 
no credit to myself. Had it not been for the 
patience of those who did not agree with my opin- 
ion or could not follow my imperfect delivery; 
had it not been for the approval and sympathy of 
those who shared my viewpoint; had it not been 
for the positive encouragement and appreciation 
of those who are friendlily disposed toward me and 



Preface xi 

toward my people, my original misgivings would 
have been more than realised, and the first well- 
meant attempt to effect a closer bond by means 
of an academic bridge between the two nations 
might have ended in disaster. 

Let me therefore express my gratitude for, and 
gratification at, the reception accorded my lectures 
such as they were. Wherever I have been, be it 
in a great University or in a small country school ; 
be it in a public entertainment in large cities or in 
the midst of an informal family circle, I have 
invariably enjoyed unstinted hospitality and a 
gracious welcome. The newspapers, which are 
not always known for their courtesy, and even 
certain journals that have won a reputation for 
their anti-Japanese utterances, have very often 
surprised me by their friendly reports in regard 
to my work. The past year has been for me a 
continuous feast of mind and soul, and now, on 
the eve of my departure from America, let me 
cast one more glance upon the places I have 
visited and the people I have met, that they 
may the more indelibly stamp themselves upon 
my memory, and that I may take home the 
unchanged friendship of the American people 
towards us, so often and everywhere expressed 
to me. 

It is very gratifying to learn that, by the time 
I shall reach my home, there will closely fol- 
low, in person, an envoy of American good-will. 
I have recently been officially informed that 



xii Prefa 



ce 



Dr. Hamilton Wright Mabie has been appointed 
as exchange lecturer to Japan. That this able 
thinker, eminent writer, and perfect gentleman 
can and will carry the message of his country to 
Japan with charm and erudition, there is no 
shadow of doubt. Should his Japanese audience 
be able to express half the good-will that it is sure 
to feel, the first span of the trans-Pacific bridge 
will have been constructed. 

Inazo Nitob6. 

PocoNO Manor Inn, 
June 20, 19 12. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGB 

^ I.— The East and the West . . i 

11. — ^The Land or Geographical Features 
IN their Relation to the Inhabi- 
tants . . . . . . 21 

III. — The Past in its Significance to the 

Present 48 

IV. — Race and National Characteristics 83 

V. — Religious Beliefs . . . .116 

VI. — Morals and Moral Ideals . .150 

VII.— Education and Educational Problems i 76 

VIII. — Economic Conditions . . . 204 

IX. — ^Japan as Coloniser . . .231 

^^. — ^American - Japanese Intercourse 

Prior to the Advent of Perry 258 

^I. — The Relations between the United 

States and Japan . ... 278 



Xlll 



xiv Contents 

CHAPTER * PAGE 

XII. — American Influence in the Far 

East 300 

Appendix — Peace over the Pacific 316 

Index ...... 331 



The Japanese Nation 



The Japanese Nation 



CHAPTER I 



THE EAST AND THE WEST 



AS facilities of intercommunication, and there- 
fore points of contact, have of late rapidly 
increased, and as the East and the West can now 
see and hear each other at close range on matters 
of business interests, instead of merely exchanging 
courtesies at a polite distance, occasions have 
likewise more frequently arisen for misunderstand- 
ing and for doubt. The reasons for this seem 
manifest, and among them is Imperialism, the 
overpowering trend of the last century, which, 
causing the stronger nations to overleap their re- 
spective territorial bounds, has brought them face 
to face with one another in unexpected quarters 
distant from home. The Dutch and the English, 
for instance, encountered each other in an un- 
wonted relation on the South African veldt. The 
Japanese and the Russians renewed acquaintance 
under strained circumstances on the plains of Man- 



2 XHe Japanese Nation 

churia — somewhat after the manner of America 
and Spain in Cuba and the PhiHppines, or, more 
recently, the Italians and the Turks in Tripoli. 
Though I do not desire a rupture of friendship 
between the United States and her friends, she may- 
yet face some of them in unamiable converse on 
the pampas of South America. 

Upon the frontiers of empires has been wit- 
nessed the impingement of one people upon another 
during the last two decades. When one calls at 
a neighbour's front door, one is usually received 
with courtesy ; on the other hand, one may possibly 
be considered an intruder in the backyard, no 
matter how innocent. Just as the marginal utility 
of commodities fixes their value, as economists 
teach us, so it is in the margins of civilisations that 
the power of expansive nationalities seems to be 
tried and determined. America has extended her 
borders to the Philippines, and Japan the edge of 
her dominions to Formosa. Here they almost 
meet. American trade, increasing in China, is 
brought into competition with Japanese, and as in 
these outskirts of commercial territory, inhabited 
by alien races, each nation tries to demonstrate 
and assert its own superiority, the timid are afraid 
that we may come to know each other in ways not 
always agreeable. 

With the growth of Imperialism the stronger 
nations look upon each other with suspicion and 
jealousy, and, unlike the more innocent intercourse 
of former days, when men delighted in the ex- 



XHe Hast and tHe W^est 3 

change of the ideas and arts of peace, modern 
Imperialism, impelled by feverish megalomania 
and zest for commercial supremacy, has come to 
regard all competitors, not only as rivals, but as 
potential enemies, whose existence jeopardises their 
own and whose fate must therefore be decided at 
the point of the sword. Nor is Imperialism alone 
to blame ; for it is nowadays quite the proper thing 
for dilettante ethnologists and amateur sociologists 
to put forward their incomplete theories and in- 
sufficient data only to make the imagined abyss 
between the East and the West appear more hope- 
less. How little Blumenbach and Cuvier fancied 
that their classification of the human race by the 
colour of the skin would be taken so seriously as 
to become a cause of animosity among the nations 
of the earth ! Under these circumstances it is the 
duty of every lover of humanity and of peace to be 
an interpreter, a go-between in the supposed clash 
of national interests and racial sentiments. 

Am I greatly mistaken in believing that, as far 
as the race question is concerned, we are now at a 
comparatively early stage of generalisation, having 
but just begun to perceive aggregate differences? 
Will not the next stage be a fuller recognition of 
spiritual affinity, of psychological unity — a realisa- 
tion that "mankind is one in spirit " and the whole 
world kin? 

I doubt whether in the earlier centuries of the 
Christian era Europe was intelligently aware of 
its own unity, as against the multitudinous 



4 XKe Japanese Nation 

principalities and powers of Asia, any more 
than these are at present conscious of their mutual 
ties. 

The political unity forced upon Europe by the 
Carlovingians proved a premature coup, but re- 
ligious unity survived the imperial fiasco, and 
brought about social unity within the boundaries 
of Europe. Then followed the Crusades to renew 
and reinforce the feeling of oneness among the 
warring nations. The term Christendom was then 
invented, — its first appearance in the English 
language being in 1389; but it long remained a 
vague, sentimental denomination. With the Refor- 
mation and the Renaissance the glamour of the 
Civitas Dei receded more and more into the privacy 
of each pious soul, while the civitas terrena, 
largely freed of the evil import imposed upon it 
by St. Augustine, was upheld by necessity, learn- 
ing, and custom. 

The term Christendom, which had been steadily 
losing its prestige as a communion of saints, God's 
kingdom on earth, assumed the new sense of the 
community of culture and the comity of nations. 
Its religious significance grew fainter and fainter, 
until it was at last displaced by the secular term, 
West, first used by Monsieur Comte. The selec- 
tion of this term involved the thesis confirming 
the unity and uniformity of European civilisation, 
and the antithesis as to its diversity from and 
superiority to Oriental civilisation. 

Discrimination of differences between the East 



THe East and tHe "West 5 

and the West certainly marks an advance in the 
differentiation of ideas upon the age when the 
nations of Europe were bHnd to their collective 
interests and indicates at the same time a step 
toward a larger synthesis, whereby Europe be- 
comes conscious of a common bond. But the 
ancients seem to have made little distinction 
between Europe and Asia. Probably differences 
were not then so glaring, trade passing unencum- 
bered to and fro, learning and peaceful arts being 
freely exchanged. In the borderland between Asia 
and Europe mingle Aryans, Semites, and Tura- 
nians. The marvellous civilisation of Babylon was 
not autochthonous, nor was that of ancient Crete. 
Indeed, how much of Greek art and thought is 
strictly Occidental, I should like to know. Or, 
how much of the arts and philosophy of Persia and 
India are strictly Oriental, I fain would ask. Until 
the Middle Ages the world was more homogeneous 
than now — at least in feeling and ideas. 

Take the early history of art, and it seems that 
Greece and India and China were in pretty close 
contact. Compare ancient Hindoo sculpture with 
Greek, and it is amazing to observe how closely 
allied they are, with the Bactrian as a link between 
them. Place by their side the old Chinese images, 
until lately almost unknown and only recently 
unearthed, and we feel that the lands of Plato and 
of Confucius were not irreconcilably opposed in 
culture. The victories of Alexander, somehow, do 
not strike me as the descent of an army of civilisa- 



6 THe Japanese Nation 

tion into a region of a very inferior grade of culture. 
The Jews served for a long time as cosmopolitan 
mediators between Europe and Asia through their 
commercial agencies; then, later, the Arabs, not 
yet turned hostile to Christianity, became the 
intermediaries of Occidental and Oriental science 
and art. But as the Saracens and afterwards the 
Ottomans — or shall we say Moslems? — interposed 
an almost insuperable barrier between Europe and 
Asia, the world was practically rent in twain. Then 
each began to pursue its own course, irrespective 
of the other's movements, so that when Europe 
awoke from its sleep of the Dark Ages, Asia still 
continued to slumber; but by the time they met 
again after the lapse of centuries they could hardly 
recognise each other's features. Rejuvenated Eu- 
rope, fresh and strong, armed with science and 
trained in liberty — ^how could it own a friend of 
*'Auld Lang Syne" in decrepit Asia, worn with age 
and torn with discord ! Sluggard Asia had lost all 
consciousness of unity of any kind. You cannot 
call it a Buddhaland, because unlike Christ in 
Europe, Buddha has rivals claiming dominion with 
him; nor was there any unity of race, literature, or 
language. If there was then any East that could 
be named in juxtaposition to the West, it expressed 
chaos as against order, a crowd of Kings who 
reigned without governing, a nondescript mass of 
beings who simply existed without living. Who 
would not then prefer "fifty years of Europe to a 
cycle of Cathay"? 



XHe East and tKe W^est 7 

But the question in my mind is whether this 
difference between the East and the West is 
strictly scientific or of lasting value? It is said 
that Leibnitz divided the human family into those 
who could read Latin and those who could not; 
and Mr. Kipling mildly hints the classification of 
the same family into those who wear trousers and 
those who wear something else — to which I may 
suggest adding those who wear nothing. The divi- 
sion of mankind into East and West is more con- 
venient but no more scientific than that of Leibnitz 
or Kipling; for with Alexander Pope, we may 

"Ask where 's the North? At York, 't is on the Tweed; 
In Scotland, at the Orcades; and there 
At Greenland, Zembla, or the Lord knows where." 

The meridian that divides the globe into East and 
West is the line which passes through the place 
where the observer stands and through the two 
poles. Hence there are as many meridians as 
there are observers and what is East to one may 
be West to the other. The Arabs were called by 
the Hebrews the children of the East, and by the 
Babylonians the dwellers of the West; and they 
denominated themselves by either of these names. 
As there is no absolute meridian, East and West 
are merely relative terms. If the meridian at 
Greenwich was selected by the convention of 1884 
in Washington as the basis of calculation for the 
world, that meridian itself was only conventional, 



8 XKe Japanese Nation 

in more senses than one, for the little English vil- 
lage has no other claim than its observatory to be 
the centre of the world. The line which there 
divides East from West also serves to unite them. 
Hence we may improve upon the rhetoric of the 
psalmist and say, "As near as the east is to the 
west"; and hence, too, it is not only when two 
strong men, "coming from the ends of the earth, 
stand face to face," but when the weakest man, 
fixing his eyes upon the polar star, stretches out 
his arms, that the two hemispheres are united, and 
that "there is neither East nor West, border nor 
breed, nor birth." Without being untrue to the 
land of one's birth or of one's adoption, one may 
say with Henry Clay, "I know no South, no 
North, no East, no West, to which I owe any 
allegiance." 

No small pains are taken to discover pointa of 
difference between East and West, and of these 
there are many, especially of the superficial sort; 
but the very fact that attempts are made to dis- 
cover differences, takes points of resemblance for 
granted. When I listen to the analysis of Japanese 
character and institutions by a hypercritical for- 
eigner — and vice versa for that matter — I am 
reminded of an anatomist who dissects a woman's 
corpse and eruditely arrays all the points wherein 
she differs from man, and would lead us to the 
inevitable conclusion that man and woman are so 
irreconcilably opposed in every single respect that 
the two can never be one. If he were so minded, 



THe East and tHe West 9 

a nursery psychologist could easily bring out evi- 
dence tending to show that a parent and a child are 
of such different mental constitution that their 
natural relations are unreasonable and must end 
in disaster. A mere description without an ex- 
planation is likely to lead to a wrong inference. 
Not much J^etter are the method and attitude 
of zoilists who write on Japan. Every oddity in 
manners, every idiosyncrasy in thought is magni- 
fied into a distinguishing characteristic of the East 
or the West, as the case may be; either way, most 
often for the Pharisaical purpose of self-exaltation. 
The very faults that are common to both, are 
deemed particularly blameworthy when committed 
by the other race. The atmosphere of the Pacific 
seems to possess the obnoxious power of throwing 
above the horizon on either side not only an in- 
verted but a perverted mirage. For instance, a 
clever author of a recent book dwells in some 
detail on the immorality of the Japanese, which he 
proves by statistics — appalling figures indeed — 
but which will stand comparison with similar 
statistics of the city of New York or of Chicago, 
if he had only given these. The same gentleman 
casts a suspicion upon our public men — of course 
in contrast to the purity and invulnerability of 
American politicians, who never violate one com- 
mandment of the Decalogue — the more so as the 
ten commandments made no mention of graft! 
It is not by mutual fault-finding or by exaggerat- 
ing each other's peculiarities that we can arrive at 



lo TKe Japanese Nation 

understanding or appreciation. Not by antipathy 
but sympathy; not by hostiUty but by hospi- 
tality ; not by enmity but by amity, does one race 
come to know the heart of another. I have already 
intimated that the Hne of division is also the line 
of union, and ''What God hath joined, let no man 
put asunder." 

There is something grand and graceful in the 
old belief or beliefs as to the locality of paradise. 
In the early Christian Church, on the occasion of 
his baptism, a new convert was made first to face 
the West in abjuring the devil and his work, be- 
cause the West was, according to Cyril, the region 
of darkness; and then he turned toward the East 
in receiving ablution, because in that quarter of 
the heavens was shown God's peculiar favour. 
In strange contrast to this, did the Buddhists 
place the abode of the blest in the West, whither 
the sun itself makes its daily pilgrimage. 

Not in the Occident and not in the Orient, but 
in the union of both, will be revealed many of the 
secrets of Divine dispensation as yet hidden from 
our sight. A few days before I left Japan, Seiho, 
the greatest painter of Modern Japan, said to me : 
"Though I do not profess any familiarity with 
European masters, I have great hopes in that 
region of art where the East and West come 
together — not the neutral land that lies barren 
between the two, but where Western art fades into 
Eastern, or where the Eastern lapses into the 
Western, or where the two domains overlap, as it 



THe East and the West II 

were. " As I listened to him, I thought to myself 
that this remark of his may be applied to other 
activities and walks of human life as well as to art. 
May we not say that some of the greatest discover- 
ies of biology have been made in the borderland 
where the animal and vegetable kingdoms meet? 
Some of the most fertile principles have been found 
in the newly cultivated field which joins chemistry 
with physics; and as for psycho-physics, delving 
as it does in a realm not yet named, between the 
territories of mind and of matter, it has struck 
rich veins of precious knowledge. We may expect 
the greatest fertility in the virgin soil where appar- 
ently contrary natures meet and wed. 

It is said that the genius of the East is spiritual, 
mystical, psychical, and that of the West is material- 
istic, actual, physical; it is said that the forte as 
well as the fault of the East is religion and senti- 
ment, and that of the West, science and reason; 
it is said that the East delights in generalisation 
and universal concepts, and the West in particu- 
lars and special knowledge; that the one leans to 
philosophy and ideas, and the other to practice and 
facts; that Oriental logic is deductive and nega- 
tive, and Occidental logic inductive and positive. 
It is also said that in political and social life, soli- 
darity and socialism characterise the East, and 
individualism and liberty, the West; it is said 
again that the Asiatic mind is impersonal and 
rejects the world, whereas the European mind is 
personal and accepts the world. The strength of 



12 XHe Japanese Nation 

Europe lies in the mastery of man over nature, and 
the weakness of Asia in the mastery of nature over 
man. In the land of the morning, man looks for 
beauty first and writes his flighty thoughts in 
numbers; in the land of the evening, man's first 
thought is for utility, and he jots down his observa- 
tions in numerals. He who watches the setting 
sun, pursues whither it marches, and his watch- 
word is Progress and his religion is the cult of the 
future. He who greets the effulgent dawn is there- 
with content and cares not for its further course, 
but rather turns in wonderment to the source 
whence it came, hence his religion is the cult of the 
past. The matin disposes man to contemplation, 
the vesper hour to reflection. In the East man 
lives for the sake of life ; in the West man lives for 
the means of living. 

On the whole there is food for thought in this 
contrast of race peculiarities; but such general 
characterisation is of little practical use in diplo- 
macy or in commerce, for the individuals with 
whom we deal do not always conform to a type, 
and the wider the scope allowed to individ- 
ual activity, the greater is the divergence from 
the type. This is distinctly so in Japan, where the 
thought and the influence of the East and of the 
West find their meeting ground. It is well known 
that the sea which surrounds my country is the 
richest in varieties of fish, because the various 
currents of the ocean which wash our shores and 
the rivers which flow into its waters meet and 



XKe !East and tHe 'West 13 

mingle and offer favourable conditions to various 
forms of animal life. It is along the line which 
unites the East and the West that we should look 
for a higher and a richer successor to our present 
civilisation. 

But instructive and interesting as is fishing on 
the high seas of speculation, there is a more press- 
ing and utilitarian demand for the study of the 
regions where Europe and Asia come in direct 
contact. Or — to put the case more concisely — 
there is, at present, urgent and practical need for 
America to understand Japan. As long as our 
planet is round, a segmental or hemispheric pro- 
gress, however deep, can only remain fragment- 
ary and falls short of perfect culture. Only in a 
mutual understanding between the opposite points 
of the compass, can man read the final destiny 
of the race, whereas without comprehending the 
antipodal soul, he can never discover his own 
shortcomings or his peculiar gifts. Very truly 
says Bailey : 

*"Tis light translateth night; 'tis inspiration ex- 
pounds experience; 't is the West explains the East "; 

and it is only tautological to add that 't is the East 
explains the West. 

Of late years, most unfortunately and most 
unexpectedly have darksome clouds been lowering 
across the Pacific Ocean, sometimes reaching gi- 
gantic proportions and assuming threatening ap- 



14 TKe Japanese Nation 

pearances — so much so that some Americans have 
imagined they saw among the clouds a dragon 
spitting fire, as in the cartoon drawn by no less 
distinguished a personage than Kaiser Wilhelm. 
There is a custom in our country whereby literary 
men who have composed a stanza ask their artist 
friends to make suitable pictures to bring out the 
meaning the better, and, conversely, artists ask 
poets to write some lines to elucidate their pict- 
ures. When I first had the honour of beholding 
this celebrated drawing of the Kaiser, there came 
to my mind an ancient Japanese ode : 

"Clouds on the distant hills 
Of far Cathay — 
Smoke which from our own hearthstones 
Rose to-day!"^ 

May we not say that the clouds which hang over 
the Pacific, if there really are any, are but the 
accumulation of fancies which have emanated 
from beclouded brains amongst us and amongst 
you? They are largely the creations of Yellow 
Journalism, for which, as it enjoys no legal patent 
right, the public pays in fright and anxiety. Then 
some unscrupulous individuals make a regular 
trade of spreading thrilling news of the imminent 
danger of war. Naturally, to satisfy a general 
craving for excitement, writers of fiction wield their 
busy pen, and already on the book-stands are 

^ For this translation I am indebted to Judge Duke of Char- 
lottesville, Va. 



XHe Bast and tHe "West 15 

arrayed a number of their products bearing popu- 
lar titles. There is no lack of authors who pander 
to depraved or bloodthirsty lovers of the fantas- 
tic. There are, too, not a few military and naval 
men who honestly believe that they can maintain 
their profession in high repute, or their trust in 
high efficiency, by constantly keeping possible 
warfare before the eyes of the public. Then, 
again, there are important business concerns to 
which a war scare is a source of large orders and of 
profit. Not seldom does it happen that an order 
for building a Dreadnaught is preceded by loud 
talk about complications with a foreign country. 
When we learn that an order for a single gunboat 
means business to the amount of six million dollars 
and employment for five thousand men for two 
and a half years, it is not surprising that a Japanese 
bogy should periodically appear. Of all forms and 
methods of argumentation, none is more convin- 
cing, though text-books on rhetoric refuse with 
lofty scorn to take note of it, than argumentum ad 
crumenam or ad hominem; and the deeper the 
pocket, the more keenly is the force of such logic 
appreciated. I have heard that a scare-crow in 
a melon patch does some good by frightening 
away innocent birds, but that it offers at the same 
time a convenient cover for a thief ! ' ' We seek and 
offer ourselves to be gulled," says Montaigne. 
The ancient Romans had an adage, "The populace 
like to be deceived" {Populus vult decipi) — and 
the* populace have not changed much since then, 



i6 XKe Japanese Nation 

despite all the changes they have witnessed. The 
gullibility of the human mind seems recently to 
have assumed most appalling dimensions; and 
when it does so, it is easily taken advantage of. 
It is then that false prophets and soothsayers ply 
their craft; and many, too many, have already 
made their appearance. Some of their voices were 
heard but lately in high places. It is deeply to be 
regretted that cheap prophecies are going to prove 
very dear to believing peoples. 

Doleful prophets there have been in all ages and 
in all places; — for instance, in 1895, a young navy 
officer uttered at Annapolis a prophecy that in the 
year of our Lord 1896 or 1897 a great cataclysm 
would involve the whole of Europe, and that Russia 
would make irresistible march westward, while 
England would dwindle into a third-rate power. 
The time that was allotted for the fulfilment of 
this prophecy has long passed, and poor mortals 
with limited vision still fail to discern the signs of 
its near realisation. Captain Hobson started out 
as a war prophet at the early age of twenty-five, 
and he still continues to exercise the same gift of 
foresight, only with this difference — that now the 
field of his prediction is the East instead of the 
West, and instead of counting the period of its 
fulfilment in years he calculates it in months. In 
February, 191 1, he declared that a rupture would 
take place between the United States and Japan 
within ten months — a per od of time which, after 
further consideration, he stretched to twenty 



XHe £ast and tHe W^est 17 

months and which, I hope, he will be further 
inspired to prolong to eternity. 

Nor is Captain Hobson the only alarmist; for 
only last summer there appeared a rival prophet 
who pretended to give a "mathematical analysis 
of the astrological evidence of war with Japan," 
in which the author points out that "When Cali- 
fornia was admitted to the Union Uranus was in 
Aries and when Washington was admitted Saturn 
and Neptune were cavorting together in an unholy 
alliance — conclusive evidence that both these 
States show themselves to be a sometime battle- 
field of the nation!" 

Whatever honour these prophets may enjoy 
here in their own country, they have none in ours. 
We are too light-hearted to take them seriously. 
It is not childish heedlessness that makes us feel 
light of heart. With our eyes wide open and our 
minds eager for national safety, we still fail to 
detect any ground for going to war with any coun- 
try, least of all with America. Should anything 
so improbable occur, you may rest assured that 
the initiative will not be taken by Japan. 

The simple fact that Japan, during the past two 
decades, has engaged in two great conflicts — or 
three, if you include her share in the suppression 
of the Boxer movement — may give an erroneous 
idea that we are a nation wantonly fond of fighting, 
a dangerously cantankerous character for a neigh- 
bour to have. But is there any other nation that 
can boast of two hundred and thirty years of con- 



1 8 XHe Japanese Nation 

tinuous peace? I do not wish to brag; but I 
should like to know for the sake of information 
whether any other country has broken that record , 
— and yet such is the absurdity of fame, that we 
figure to the world as a race of Myrmidons. 

I have often seen suspicion cast upon Japan 
because of her great armament ; that she must be 
drilling her army and building Dreadnaughts for 
the ulterior purpose of territorial expansion. I 
personally am opposed to such armament; but 
even as it is, it is not for aggression. You know 
the Scotch proverb, "Nae one can live in peace 
unless his neighbours let him." Or, to put it 
in more high-sounding phraseology, we have to 
bring ourselves into selective accommodation or 
organic adjustment to the bellicose environment 
of the twentieth century. If we need an army or 
navy, we need it for self-defence, self-preservation. 
With the acquisition of Korea and Saghalien, our 
coast line has increased, but not our navy in the 
same proportion. 

We do not forget some unkind comments and 
hard treatment from certain countries ; but we are 
morally prepared to bear them, if not like martyrs, 
at least like gentlemen. Like our fabled dragon, 
we do not stir while maidens play with our beard 
or children ride upon our back. But let a rude 
hand touch his throat, the dragon will rise in all 
his native fury. You understand this spirit. It 
is not a warhke or aggressive spirit. Is it not the 
spirit of '76, as you call it? When the Thirteen 



TTHe East and tKe "West 19 

Colonies, the "three millions of people armed in 
the holy cause of liberty, " rose up, like one man, 
*' invincible by any force," who called them an 
aggressive people? There is a wide margin be- 
tween an unconquerable spirit and a spirit of 
conquest. "The vigilant, the active, and the 
brave" are not on that account the warlike. The 
unconquerable spirit is the spirit of peace and not 
of war. No people will understand the distinction 
better than the American. 

"Westward the course of Empire holds its way," 
has been true in one hemisphere, while eastward 
has been the march of human mind in the other, 
and now America in the foremost files of Western 
time and Japan as the heir of all the Asian ages, 
are met to complete the world's electric circle. 
I would not liken you to sentinels of Occidental 
culture and ourselves to guards of Oriental tradi- 
tions, as do some. Neither of us stands on the 
Pacific coast to ward off the other from the treas- 
ures of his heritage. Are we not more than willing 
— even eager — mutually to share our ancestral 
gifts? 

If your country and mine should come to a 
better knowledge each of the other — to a fuller 
and deeper understanding of each other's mission 
and aspirations — a long stride will have been taken 
toward the general advancement of human happi- 
ness, a great step toward the fulfilment of the 
prophecy, not of a sensational soothsayer, but of a 
great seer and thinker, who dipped into the future. 



20 THe Japanese Nation 

far as human eye could see, and saw the time 

"When the war drum throbb'd no longer, and the 

battle-flags were furled 
In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the 

world." 

And to this great consummation, devoutly to be 
wished for, it is a privilege to contribute a widow's 
mite. 



CHAPTER II 

THE LAND OR GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES IN THEIR 
RELATION TO THE INHABITANTS 

GEOGRAPHICALLY defined, Japan is a series 
of long and narrow volcanic islands in the 
Pacific Ocean, lying off the north-eastern coast of 
the Asiatic continent in the shape of a longitudinal 
curve. 

This simple definition would require a detailed 
explanation were we to exhaust its full meaning 
— a task for which we have now no space at com- 
mand. All we can do is to take up one by one the 
salient points of the definition and treat them from 
the standpoint of anthropo-geography. In the 
present discourse, I wish to amplify the follow- 
ing points: 1st, that Japan is an island country; 
2d, that it is volcanic; 3d, that it is narrow; 4th, 
that it is long ; 5th, that it lies off the coast of the 
Asiatic continent; 6th, that it lies in the Pacific 
Ocean. 

I. First of all, Japan Is a Series of Islands. 

The whole country consists of no less than five 
hundred and eighteen islands. 

The question what dimensions raise a piece of 

21 



22 



TKe Japanese Nation 



land in the sea from a mere rock to the dignity of 
an island, is not yet scientifically or unanimously 
decided. The statement is sometimes made that 
the Empire of Japan consists of more than one 
million islands, and the Tribune Almanac for 19 12 
gives the number of islands composing the Empire 
as 4223. In our official returns, however, we 
exclude all those whose circumference is less than 
one ri (two and a half miles), unless inhabited or 
unless they serve as sea-marks of some importance. 
Of these hundreds of isles, we will name only 
the most important: 



Names oj Islands 



Number of 
Dependencies 



Honshu 

Hokkaido 

Kyushu 

Taiwan (Formosa) 

Shikoku 

Chishima (31 Kurile islands) 

Ryukyu (55 Loochoo islands) 

Sado 

Tsushima 

Awaji 

Oki 

Hokoto (Pescadores) 

Iki 

Ogasawara (20 Bonin islands) 



166 

13 
150 

7 
7 



5 
I 
I 

12 
I 



Area 

81,843.88 sq.mi. 

30,299.87 

15,600.54 

13,851.99 

7,036.48 

6,028.48 

935-78 

335-73 

266.53 

218.67 

130.46 

47.62 

51-43 

26.82 



Total 156,674.28 sq. mi. 



If we exclude from this list Taiwan or Formosa 
and the Pescadores, we shall have over 142,000 
square miles, which constitute what may be called 



GeograpKical Featxires of Country 23 

Old Japan, or Japan Proper. This is quite a 
respectable area for any nation to possess. We 
can compare favourably with the United Kingdom 
of Great Britain and Ireland or with Italy. In 
relation to the United States, however, the com- 
parison will not redound to our glory, for our whole 
area is only equal in expanse to the State of Mon- 
tana, is smaller than California or Texas, and is 
about three times the size of the State of New 
York or Virginia or Pennsylvania. 

Owing to the insular formation of the country, 
the coast line, in proportion to the area, is natur- 
ally considerable, bearing an average of one mile 
to every eight square miles. 

The coast bordering the Pacific Ocean, or, as 
we call it. Outer Japan, is very much more diversi- 
fied than Inner Japan, or the shores along the Sea 
of Japan ; hence the coast line of the former meas- 
ures over 10,300 miles as against 2800 miles of the 
latter. Many of the indentations furnish excellent 
anchorage. 

The insular nature of our country implies that 
a large number of our population are born and 
bred within sight of the sea, and, thus destined by 
nature to wield its craft, breathe its winds, and 
fight its billows, are inured from infancy to a sea- 
faring life. There were times when our people 
ploughed the Pacific Ocean in their barks as 
traders, adventurers, colonists, and pirates, and 
started settlements along the shores of Asia or in 
different islands of the Southern Pacific, wander- 



24 TKe Japanese Nation 

ing "on from island unto island at the gateways 
of the day." Only by a strong governmental 
measure was this enterprising spirit kept in abey- 
ance for two or three centuries, during which time 
the insular character of the country, far from 
arousing an adventurous spirit, cramped it within 
the precincts of its native land ; so that the people, 
instead of looking out upon the great waters which 
surround them, turned their back upon the sea 
and strenuously confined their attention to the 
little valleys and restricted plains of Dai-Nippon. 
Insularity need not spell narrowness of ideas. It 
ought to mean breadth of vision. Whether it does 
the one or the other, will depend upon the attitude 
which the people take in regard to the sea. The 
Phoenicians and the Jews dwelt side by side on the 
same coast, but the Jews became exclusively a 
land folk, while the Phoenicians filled the farthest 
end of the then known sea with their ships of 
exploration and commerce, — truly, as Gibbon says, 
''The winds and waves are always on the side of 
the ablest navigators. " It is said that the love of 
the sea and the enjoyment of its perils are confined 
to people of the Norse blood, but a little closer 
study will reveal the same characteristic in the 
Malays ; and here I touch upon the subject of race. 

Among the manifold effects of insularity, I may 
mention, first of all, the homogeneity of our people. 

In spite of differences of blood and origin, the 
races which in time past drifted to our shores — 
the southern peoples from the tropics, the western 



Geo^rapKical Features of Coxantry 25 

from the Asiatic continent — ^have all mixed and 
amalgamated on our soil, and have been politically 
and socially moulded together until they have 
formed one homogeneous nation with one language, 
one tradition, one history, one literature. The 
diverse ancestors of the constituent races have 
gradually disappeared beyond the veil of obscurity 
and oblivion; so that our people now trace their 
ancestry to a common stock and pride themselves 
upon the name of the Yamato race. 

This uniformity explains the strong patriotic 
sentiment which with us rises to an almost re- 
ligious ardour. It is also this same consciousness 
which forms the basis of our loyalty to our ruler, 
upon whom we look as the personal representative 
of that ethnic unity — that strong sense of solidar- 
ity which defies any uninvited intrusion from 
without. During the Russo-Japanese War it was 
often repeated that if Russia were successful, she 
could never land her army on Japanese soil, or, if 
she did, it would be after the land was entirely 
bereft of inhabitants; for to the last survivor the 
Japanese, women as well as men, would fight for 
its defence. Intensity is a characteristic of island 
life. Ratzel, in speaking of "the exclusive person- 
ality" of an insular people, says that England 
reaches the maximum intensity of the civilisation 
of her neighbouring continent, and I believe that 
this remark is no less applicable to the o^ily other 
insular nation which is independent in the strict 
sense of the term ; for I dare say that our compact, 



26 XKe Japanese Nation 

intense nationality is the product of the waters 
which surround us. 

To the insularity of our country, again, is due 
our freedom from foreign invasions and foreign 
complications. Were it not for the sea, we would 
not have escaped the catastrophes which so often 
befell the Korean and Chinese Empires. Only 
twice in the history of twenty centuries have hos- 
tile demonstrations taken place near our shores, — 
once at the close of the thirteenth century, when 
Kublai Khan, flushed with his conquests in China, 
despatched what was then considered an invincible 
armada; then, again, early in this century, when 
a hostile fleet under Admiral Rozhdestvensky 
approached our shores. But in neither case did 
Japan suffer in honour or in arms. These events 
only served to strengthen the confidence that we 
are "compass'd by the inviolate sea," and that 
our shores are guarded by waves and winds which 
love our land no less than do our captains and 
sailors. 

Not only in respect to freedom from foreign 
invasion, but in respect to civil liberty, has Japan 
been fortunately located. It is true she did not 
develop that idea to a degree in any way approxi- 
mating its development by the English or the Swiss. 
But compare her political career with that of 
China or India — countries whose examples she 
usually followed — and we cannot help wondering 
how her children have escaped the devastation of 
tyranny and despotism which overtook them. If 



GeograpKical Features of Covintry 2^] 

she did not rise in the cause of liberty, neither did 
she sink into utter thraldom such as theirs. Sing- 
ing of Swiss liberty, Wordsworth wrote : 

"Two voices are there; one is of the sea. 
One of mountains; each a mighty voice." 

If liberty loves the heights and the deep, nowhere 
will it find a more congenial home than in Japan, 
which is only sea and mountains. It is worth 
noting here that Japan is the first country in Asia 
where parliamentary rule, the surest guarantee of 
liberty, has been adopted. 

It is not only in respect to ethnic unity and 
solidarity, to loyalty, liberty, and patriotism, that 
our geographic insularity tells; but also in our 
every-day mode of living. Fishery supplies an im- 
portant source of employment and of diet. It fur- 
nishes yearly an amount of food valued at about 
fifty million dollars, and employs the vast nuniber 
of nearly two million people. Though our people 
are practically vegetarians, fish and fowl are 
freely consumed. No less than four hundred and 
fifty kinds of fish are caught in our waters, many 
of which are edible. I shall not go into con- 
jecture as to how far a diet of fish affects the size 
of our brain! but it explains at least in part why 
stock-farming did not attain an important place 
in our economy. Cattle were never abundant, 
swine less so, and sheep unknown until recent 
years. It has been thought that our cHmate does' 



28 TKe Japanese Nation 

not favour the growth of grass; but the dis- 
couragement given by Buddhism and Shinto to 
the slaughter of animals, on the one hand, and 
the rich harvest of the sea, on the other, were 
reasons more potent than climate for our poverty 
in live stock. 

Islands naturally possess a maritime climate, 
the distinctive features of which are equability, 
relative humidity, and great cloudiness. One curi- 
ous effect of our moist atmosphere is the frequent 
use of very warm baths, which are taken at a 
temperature as high as 120° Fahrenheit. New- 
comers to Japan regard such a practice as highly 
unhygienic, but a few years' residence demonstrates 
to them that the custom is dictated by climatic 
demands. Our people are not happy unless they 
bathe frequently, and this habit of daily ablution 
is perhaps due to atmospheric humidity. 

We have throughout the year an average of 1 50 
days of snow or rain, and 215 days of fair weather; 
that is, for every three days of rain or snow, we 
have four fine days. As to quantity, the rainfall 
ranges, according to locality, from twenty to thirty 
inches a year. 

The best medical authorities believe that our 
climate is particularly excellent for children. By 
Americans resident in Japan, its moisture is felt 
to be rather hard to bear, and I have often heard 
them complain of what they call "Japan head," 
by which they mean incapacity to work — ^in fact 
a species of nervous prostration, the same ailment 



Geo^rapHical Features of Co\intry 29 

which Germans name Americanitis, but which Am- 
erican residents prefer to ascribe to the Japanese 
chmate. 

I may state in passing, however, that Japan has 
a modified continental, rather than a strictly mari- 
time, climate; but, lying in the monsoon region, 
the comparatively regular rains have made rice- 
culture the basis of agriculture. Though we can- 
not accept Buckle's conclusion in regard to the 
physiological effect of rice upon the brain, we can 
believe with Crawfurd that rice-culture and its 
indispensable condition, irrigation, exercised a vast 
influence on the economic, social, and political 
institutions of our people. 

As for the indirect effect of the sea upon nutri- 
tion, there is good reason to believe that it is 
worthy of special study. According to the re- 
searches of Schindler, wheat grown in a maritime 
climate contains less protein, and, to supply its 
deficiency, crops rich in nitrogen, notably legumi- 
nous plants, are cultivated. This accounts for the 
prominent part played by legumes in our farming, 
and for their abundant use in our dietary system. 
The soy bean, crushed and made into what may 
be called vegetable cheese, or fermented and made 
into a paste, or simply cooked somewhat like the 
famous baked beans of New England, shares with 
rice the honour of being the staff of life among 
our people. 

While I am on the subject of climate, I may be 
allowed to call your attention to a theory lately 



30 TKe Japanese Nation 

advanced by Professor KuUmer of Syracuse and 
Professor Huntington of Yale, as to the secret of 
national greatness. Briefly stated, they claim, to 
use Mr. Huntington's words, that "mankind is 
most progressive in places where there is not only 
a marked difference between summer and winter, 
but also where there are frequent variations from 
day to day." To substantiate their theory, the 
cyclonic storms of temperate regions are taken as 
a measure of atmospheric changes, and they find 
that "the area included within the line of ten 
storms, embraces all the leading countries of the 
world" — the United States, Great Britain, France, 
the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Switzerland, Ger- 
many, Austria, Northern Italy, Western Russia — 
and, strange to say, the only Asiatic country sub- 
ject to similar cyclonic storms happens to be 
Japan. Thus anemology serves to bind .where 
ethnology attempts to sever. The world is an 
JEolian harp and nations are but its strings, 
athwart which the stronger blows the wind, the 
fuller and finer the note. 

There is always a strong temptation to exagger- 
ate the effect of geographic environment. Not a 
clover plant blooms but is held to sway the des- 
tinies of the British Empire. Not a few writers 
have tried to explain our mode of living, our 
mental habits, literature, and religion, as corollaries 
of the volcanic character of the country — the 
second item of our definition of geographical 
Japan. 



GeograpKical Featxires of Co\intry 31 

II. The Volcanic Character of our Topography. 

That most of our islands are volcanic in their 
formation is not to be disputed. If Egypt is the 
gift of the Nile, Japan is the legacy of primeval 
fire. 

Three principal volcanic ranges, containing 
about two hundred volcanoes, fifty of which are 
active, run lengthwise and crosswise through 
Japan. To the fact that their mischievous spirits 
hold rendezvous in the proximity of Fuji, we owe 
the exquisite form of our ''peerless mountain'* 
and many an occasion of terror at their antics. 
Volcanoes, both extinct and active, abounding, 
seismic phenomena are frequent. Observations 
for the twenty-five years between 1 885-1 909 show 
that Japan was subject, during this period, to no 
less than 37,642 earthquakes, not to take into 
account minor vibrations which are felt only by 
delicate instruments. This gives a yearly average 
of 1506 shocks, or about four per day. Four 
shocks a day certainly represent an alarmingly 
frequent occurrence of the phenomenon, and would 
be unendurable if they were not scattered over a 
very large area. Then, too, there is some comfort 
in the assurance that minor shocks bind the strata 
by removing weaker cleavages and will thus pre- 
vent the occurrence of severer ones. From records 
of earthquakes for over three hundred years, one 
learns to expect a shock of ordinary severity once 
in about thirty months and a disastrous upheaval 
once in a life-time. 



S2 THe Japanese Nation 

Any one the least familiar with Japanese art 
must have observed how our Mount Fuji forms 
the favourite motif for artists, and a hasty illa- 
tion is drawn therefrom that volcanoes must exert 
a strong influence upon the aesthetic sense and 
upon art. Our low, wooden style of architecture 
is generally considered to be due to frequent earth- 
quakes, and the study of seismic disturbances 
convinces us that low, wooden structures suffer 
decidedly less than high, stone or brick buildings ; 
the last mentioned suffering most. 

I am not in a position to prove the effect of 
earthquakes upon our fine art; but that they 
strongly influence our architecture is so patent 
that it needs no demonstration. Specially worthy 
of mention in this connection is the curvature given 
to the old stone castle walls. It approximates that 
theoretical curve known in geometry as the para- 
bolic, which gives the greatest stability against 
earthquakes, and which at the same time conforms 
most nearly to the line of beauty. As another 
illustration of how earthquakes stimulate archi- 
tectural ingenuity, I may mention the way in which 
the five-storied pagodas, some of them over a hun- 
dred feet high, are built to endure the severest 
shocks. These high structures have never been 
known to fall. The principle on which they are 
built is the combination of an inverted pendulum 
with an ordinary pendulum, which is said to mini- 
mise the effect of any tremor. The principle is 
embodied in a heavy, massive piece of timber, 



GeograpHical Featvires of Covintry 33 

suspended somewhat freely from the top and rest- 
ing on a pivot below, so that in case the ground 
shakes, the whole structure sways in such a manner 
as to maintain its equilibrium. 

Aristotle, in remarking that insensibility to fear 
does not necessarily argue true courage, gives 
earthquakes and waves as instances of forces which 
man may fear without losing self-respect. The 
Semites looked with pious awe and dread upon 
the earthquake as theophany, and in their lan- 
guage the term for it, ra'ash, was poetically em- 
ployed for the harmonious choral song of angels. 
We, too, do not omit earthquakes from the list 
of things to fear, among which the vulgar populace 
count three others — the thunderbolt, conflagration, 
and, last but not least, daddy's frown! It is 
curious that the external attitude, if I may so say, 
of the popular mind, in regard to this really terror- 
inspiring convulsion, is of a humorous nature. Is 
the underlying idea that of defying the power 
of the alarming phenomenon? Or is it because, 
being too awful to think of, human understanding, 
like Hamlet in the presence of a ghost, revolts 
against its own weakness and pelts impotent jeers 
at it? The very origin of earthquakes is ascribed 
rather jocosely to the movement of a huge, phleg- 
matic cat-fish, namazu, living in mud beneath the 
crust of the earth. When its barbels twitch, 
seismology makes record of fresh shocks; but 
should the hideous monster feel inclined to raise 
its broad, glum head in its dozing on the muddy 



34 THe Japanese Nation 

bottom, then woe to civilisation and all its achieve- 
ments! Nobody takes this creature seriously. 
When it is mentioned, it is always in a humorous 
vein. Among the eighty myriad gods of the Shinto 
pantheon, there is only one solitary mention of a 
god of earthquakes, and he has no homage paid 
him such as Poseidon, the Earth-Shaker, enjoyed 
at the hands of the Hellenes. Then among hun- 
dreds of nature-myths, to which one listens with 
more or less religious reverence, one looks in vain 
for the story of an earth-shaker. 

So, of the mental influence of telluric outbursts 
we can say little that is definite, and as far as their 
physical effects are concerned, it is doubtful that 
the ozone produced could furnish material for 
nitrogenous fertiliser in any appreciable quantity. 
Equally doubtful is the production by earthquakes 
of enough ozone to show a stimulating effect on 
man or beast. 

As a permanent compensation for the disquiet- 
ing' earthquake, terrestrial fire has studded the 
country with some four hundred and thirty min- 
eral springs, hot and cold, and of diverse medicinal 
virtues. 

Our mountains, not necessarily of igneous origin 
but as a matter of fact largely so, in conjunction 
with the damp climate, give rise to many cascades 
and cataracts, which are valuable assets in the 
production of water and electric power. The 
wealth of picturesque scenery is the price Vulcan 
pays for his sports. 



GeograpKical Featxires of Country 35 

There is a certain feature of the volcanic forma- 
tion of our islands which has a far-reaching and 
dire economic effect. I mean the comparatively 
small extent of land fit for tillage. Under the 
present mode of husbandry, it is generally ad- 
mitted that the use of the plough or of the spade 
is economically possible on fairly level plains, but 
where farms have a slope exceeding fifteen degrees, 
cultivation does not repay the toil of the peasant. 
It is estimated that in Japan tillable plains amount 
only to 26}/2 per cent, of the whole area, and even 
these do not exist in large complexes, being scat- 
tered here and there in small bits, sometimes along 
river-courses and sometimes among the mountains. 
Out of this limited level area, a moiety only is 
under actual cultivation. In other words, the 
arable land of Japan forms only 14.6 per cent, of 
the entire extent of her territory — a remarkably 
small proportion, when we remember that fifty 
million souls, find their subsistence here. 

Owing, too, to rugged topography and to the 
absence of extensive plains, large cities have not 
developed in any number. Tokyo, situated in the 
most extensive plain — that of Musashi — is at 
present a city of some two million inhabitants, 
the size of Chicago — and is still steadily growing, 
as a result of which the value of land increases at 
the rate of ten per cent, a year. Osaka, being a har- 
bour and located in the basin of the Yodo River, 
has now a population approaching one million, and 
Nagoya (300,000) is fast outgrowing the ancient 



36 TKe Japanese Nation 

capital of Kyoto (400,000). Not for geographical 
but for economic reasons, as in the rest of the world, 
our larger cities are developing at the expense of 
the country — so much so that some provinces are 
suffering from the increase of ''abandoned farms." 
The smallness of the arable area will be made 
clearer by considering the third item in our defini- 
tion ; — ^namely, the narrowness of the country. 

III. The Width of the Country. If we include 
recent territorial acquisitions, the Japanese Empire 
extends in length from the middle of Saghalien 
(50° N. Lat.) to the southern extremity of Formosa 
(21° 45' N. Lat.), covering about twenty-eight 
degrees of latitude — equal to the distance from 
the mouth of the St. Lawrence or the Islands of 
Vancouver, as far south as Cuba or the southern- 
most promontory of Lower California. The width, 
on the contrary, is quite out of proportion to the 
length, being in many places no more than fifty 
miles, as the crow flies, and in no place exceeding 
two hundred miles. Still, having a long chain of 
mountains running like a rib through its central 
part, the country is well-nigh impassable from the 
eastern to the western coast, except by a few 
narrow valleys. A curious economic effect of this 
topographical formation is the nationalisation of 
railways; for, as the railroads must run through 
mountains and along precipitous valleys — much 
of the way across ravines and torrents — the cost 
of construction is very great, and even after con- 



GeograpKical Feat\jres of Coxintry 37 

struction, the frequent rains, with their consequent 
floods and washouts and landsHdes, necessitate 
continual outlay for the maintenance of the lines. 

These considerations, especially the narrowness 
of many valleys, forbid the building of more than 
one good trunk line. As long as there is to be but 
one line, is it not wiser for the government to 
possess and control it than that such far-reaching 
public service be left to the monopoly of a private 
company? 

Though the country has not great width, the 
eastern and western sides offer many points of dif- 
ference. The western shores are washed by heavy 
seas, being exposed to the strong and cold north- 
westerly winds coming from the Siberian plains. 
Outer Japan is milder in climate, owing to the 
Black Current ; it has more bright days ; it abounds 
in gulfs and bays, harbours and ports. We may say 
that Japan faces the Pacific and turns her back 
upon the sea which separates her from China, and 
the social and political import of this simple fact 
may be inferred by comparing it with Italy, where 
harbours of any consequence are all located on the 
western coast ; or with Greece, which turns its face 
towards Asia Minor. 

Since the islands are narrow and mountain 
ranges divide them lengthwise, the rivers are inevi- 
tably short and rapid. There are only fifteen 
rivers more than a hundred miles long, and only 
three of these boast double that length. Under 
drier skies our streams would be insignificant ; but 



38 XHe Japanese Nation 

the general atmospheric humidity of our climate 
and our two rainy seasons keep them supplied at 
all times with water, which is, however, liberally 
drawn off for purposes of irrigation, thus rendering 
the main current less serviceable than ever for 
navigation. On account of reckless denudation 
of wooded area, every rain washes sand and gravel 
down the naked slopes of the hills, filling the river- 
beds with silt and working havoc upon the sur- 
rounding regions. But I must add, to redeem the 
reputation of our rivers, that many of them afford 
an excellent source of hydro-electric power. 

IV. The Length of the Empire. I have thus 
far dwelt exclusively on the narrowness of the 
country. In considering the length, however, 
special attention must be paid to the fourth item — 
that the islands lie obliquely within twenty-eight 
degrees of latitude. This fact allows a wide range 
of temperature and a great variety of vegetation, 
and finally — variation in the character and tem- 
perament of the inhabitants. The temperature 
of Tokyo may be taken as an average of that of 
the whole country. The mean temperature for 
twenty years shows 36.7° Fahrenheit in January, 
and 78° in August, the average for the whole year 
being nearly 57°. In Tokyo snow falls three or 
four times during the winter, sometimes to a depth 
of several inches. In the northern island of Hok- 
kaido, we have snow from the end of November 
to the beginning of April, and there the tempera- 



Geo^^apHical Featxires of Country 39 

ture falls 10, 20, and even 30 degrees below zero. 

To Japan's humidity and its prevailing winds, 
we have incidentally referred. All these factors 
combined explain in part the wealth of our flora, 
which Savatier in his Enumeratio gives as 2750 
species of plants indigenous to Japan. 

Each month of the year has its favourite flower. 
January has its pine, the symbol of evergreen old 
age, which, with the bamboo and the plum, form 
in our language of flowers a triad used on all pro- 
pitious occasions. February has its plum, the 
ume — ^botanically different from your plum — 
which is the first tree to bloom in the spring, 
unfolding its pink, white, or yellow buds while the 
snow still continues to fall. Under such adverse 
circumstances does it bloom, that the plum has 
won a reputation for courage among flowers, and 
when you see its pink blossoms covered with snow- 
flakes, its delicate perfume lending further charm 
to the song of the warbler which delights to make 
its abode among its branches, you will not wonder 
at our infatuation over it. The fruit of the ume 
has an economic value, for it is not only edible in 
itself, but makes the juice with which our best 
silk is dyed red. The plum is succeeded in March 
by the peach, a flower that typifies beauty, and, 
like beauty, quickly fades to give place to another 
no less ephemeral but the most exquisite of all — the 
cherry. April is sacred to the sakura, the cherry, 
the most popular child of all our floral world. It 
is cultivated not for its fruit, nor for its wood, but 



40 TTKe Japanese Nation. 

for its flowers, that bloom for half a week, and if a 
more material motive for its cultivation is looked 
for, it lies in the use of the flower as a dainty 
beverage when pickled in salt and steeped in hot 
water. Thus we quaff this vernal essence of our 
clime in as literal a sense as we inhale its breath. 
No wonder we look upon it as the national flower, 
embodying the spirit of the race, as an old poet 
has sung, — 

"Should strangers ask what the spirit of Yamato is, 
Point to the cherry blowing fragrant in the morning 
sun." 

But the short-lived cherry is succeeded in May 
by the Wistaria, which was introduced into this 
country by Dr. Wistar; hence the name. This 
is followed in June by the iris, and as the heat of 
summer rises in July, the morning-glory refreshes 
our eyes with its many tints, and while it is still 
at the height of its glory, the lotus, dear to the 
religion of Buddha as lilies are to Christians, takes 
up its turn in August. The lotus, of various 
dainty hues, grows in water; and many a lover of 
flowers leaves his bed before^dawn to hasten to a 
pond that he may hear the bursting of its buds. 
The lotus adds to its spiritual meaning a tangible 
quality; for its seeds are edible and its long rhi- 
zomes are used as a vegetable. When the summer 
heat is gone, and with September the thermometer 
begins to take a downward course, the so-called 



GeograpKical Features of Covintry 41 

"seven plants of autumn" (including the graceful 
Eulalia, the chaste Campanella, the rough-leaved 
Patrinia, which we call the maiden-flower, etc.) 
gladden the hearts which are sobered by the fall 
of leaves and mellowed by the saddening moon, 
which shines particularly clear in the drier autumn 
nights. When these rather delicate and tender 
plants begin to fade one by one in quick succes- 
sion, robbing the wayside of its glowing tints, 
then in the month of October bloom in luxuriance 
chrysanthemums of every imaginable hue. Ama- 
teurs and professionals then vie with each other 
in exhibiting their best plants, and the Emperor 
opens his garden to his invited guests to show the 
chrysanthemum — this flower, painted with sixteen 
petals, being the crest of his family. The chrys- 
anthemum has long outgrown its Greek etymon — • 
the blossom of gold. It boasts of innumerable 
shades of colour, and gives promise through its 
fecund power to produce newer varieties. You 
certainly have worked marvels in the chrysanthe- 
mum in this country ; but I wonder if you raise two 
or three edible varieties of this plant, using, as we 
do, the petals for salad and the leaves as well as 
the flowers for fritters. But I have no time now 
to linger in the kitchen; for, when November 
comes with its bright sunshine, it is time for every 
lover of nature to sally forth among hills and dales 
* ' a-maple-hunting, " as we call it. As in the spring 
multitudes wend their way to certain localities 
famed for the sakura, so now they make their excur- 



42 TKe Japanese Nation 

sion to feast their eyes upon the brocade of foliage. 
Japan, I understand, is richest in varieties of 
maple, but when the branches are shorn of their 
gorgeous drapery by the chilly breeze of December, 
this month makes compensation by bringing 
among the deep verdure of the camellia a profuse 
display of colours — ^white, scarlet, pink, and red. 
I have loitered too long — a whole year — among 
the flowers of my land, but will now retrace my 
steps to take up a more serious discussion of the 
fifth item of my definition, which refers to the 
fact that Japan lies off the coast of China, at 
considerable distance from the rest of the world. 

V. Japan's Location off the Asiatic Coast. This 
distance froni the continent as well as from the 
southern seas is not too great for a daring people 
to cross, but it was too far to enable large numbers 
to make an expedition with weapons and provi- 
sions in days when steam was unknown. Hence, 
peaceful immigrants came from time to time to 
settle here, to merge with those who had occupied 
the land before them, while invading troops could 
not make inroads upon these shores. 

Being located where they are, the Japanese 
islands are farthest removed from the centre or 
centres of world politics, — from European capitals 
or from the Atlantic coast of this continent. It is 
over seven thousand miles from New York to Yoko- 
hama. It has become a fashion in these latter 
days to speak rather disrespectfully of distance, as 



GeograpKical Features of Coventry 43 

though electricity and steam have practically 
annihilated it. We brag of the recent achieve- 
ment, whereby a wireless message was sent and 
received across the Pacific Ocean. This is all very 
remarkable and we are justified in congratulating 
ourselves, but the element of space exists just 
the same, the actual distance not shrinking a mile 
or an inch. It is as impossible to subtract a 
cubit from space as it is to add it to our stature. 

To the artistic, distance may serve the purpose 
of lending enchantment to the view, but for more 
utilitarian purposes, it is too real an element 
to be lightly trifled with. As applied to our 
case, this distance brought in its train at least 
two important psychological consequences, viz.; 
the sense of isolation and of discontinuity. In 
spite of all the recent improvements in transporta- 
tion, it is still no easy undertaking, financially or 
physically, for most people to go back and forth 
across a space "where half the convex world 
intrudes between." Such remoteness is enough 
to create apartness or to estrange sympathy. 
Hence Japan has to bear the disadvantage of a 
certain degree of isolation, until the centres of the 
world are moved elsewhere or until easier means 
of transportation come in vogue. 

Then, too, the sense of discontinuity engendered 
by the presence of vast deserts, lofty mountain 
chains, and unfathomed ocean, gives one an impres- 
sion that there must be a wide and deep chasm 
that cannot be bridged over between the mental 



44 T"He Japanese Nation 

habits and moral notions of the denizens of the 
antipodes. 

In connection with the distance factor, I may 
here refer to an idea advanced by Professor Davis 
of Harvard, who in speaking of a remote colony, 
says that the most enterprising and aggressive 
new-comers press to the frontier where gentleness, 
considerateness, forbearance in their dealings with 
others, especially with inferiors, are less common 
on the part of the invaders than the contrasted 
qualities of roughness, dominance, and intolerance. 
The hasty acts of the isolated frontiersman are 
seldom restrained by a tempered public sentiment 
in favour of patience and conciliation, for at the 
outposts of civilisation there is no public to have 
a sentiment. In the case of the United States, 
California being on its frontier, that State has 
once or twice given an illustration of this effect of 
the distance factor in its attitude toward Japanese 
immigration. That brilliant French writer, Mau- 
rice Leblanc, has recently shown in the form of a 
novel. The Frontier, how trivial deeds of unfriend- 
liness, when enacted near national boundaries, 
may assume a gigantic magnitude. 

Now, let me proceed to my sixth anddast article 
of definition. 

VI. Japan's Position in the Pacific Ocean. 

Japan lies in the Pacific, with her face toward the 
morning sun and her gates open to the east. Before 
her spreads the illimitable expanse of the Pacific, 



GeograpKical Features of Co\intry 45 

where the bravest of folks, nurtured in the salt air 
and in the daring crafts of the sea, can find ample 
space for action. They can ride on the wings of 
the storm or plunge into the billows for the treas- 
ures of the deep, realising here the widest scope of 
action, fulfilling their highest calling and prepared 
for whatever awaits them. Here will be solved 
many a world problem that has puzzled philos- 
ophers and perplexed statesmen. We believe 
that it will be in the island realm of ours, lying 
between the two continents, that the world's 
contradictions will be solved. 

Japan is aware that her mission is to mediate 
between the old and the new civilisations. We 
believe that it is in us and through us that the 
East and the West should meet. Our history of 
the last fifty years is a proof of our assertion. ^ 

On the Asiatic continent there are crude mani- 
festations of impatience of European control; of 
fear and hatred of the White Peril. There are 
also evidences of the awakening of self-conscious- 
ness; of a feeling that an organised Asia can turn 
back the flood of European aggression. For all 
these recent signs of an inimical attitude that 
the East takes towards the West, Japan is held 
directly or indirectly responsible. She is in the 
exceedingly delicate and unenviable position of a 
scapegoat for* the whole of Asia. If a white 
power snatches a piece of property on the conti- 
nent, be it in China, India, Siam, or Persia, and 
the victim raises a hue and cry, Japan is suspected 



46 TKe Japanese Nation 

of supplying the air to his windpipe! But he 
reads these signs of the times amiss who sees 
bloody conflicts as their final and inevitable issues. 
Japan feels it her own responsibility to set the 
world's ideas right on this momentous point. She 
interprets her geographical position not in a nega- 
tive, hostile spirit; but in a positive, friendly 
attitude of service to mankind, by bringing to- 
gether nations that have long trodden different 
ways and establishing between them bonds of 
mutual understanding, unity, and respect. 

The meaning of the Pacific Ocean seems to have 
dawned with sudden luminosity upon the eyes of 
the Occident. Twenty years ago, a British states- 
man of first rank could hardly be induced to annex 
part of an island near Australia; but now, were 
there discovered a fragment of a coral reef in the 
remotest part of this ocean, the great powers 
would rush with their gun-boats to plant their 
flag. Spain and Portugal have practically receded 
from the stage where they played their best and 
their worst, and in their stead Russia and America 
have made their appearance. Holland and Eng- 
land still maintain their prestige, and France and 
Germany are ambitious to have their share in the 
interests of the Pacific. To China and Japan this 
ocean presents a question of life and death. When 
we remember that in the Asiatic countries border- 
ing it, swarms of mankind numbering some six 
hundred milHon souls, or one-third of the whole 
human family, live and have their being, it is 



GeograpKical Featvires of Co\:intry 47 

no wonder that the world's chief interest during 
the twentieth century will be centred here. Should 
concerns of such magnitude be decided by one or 
two powers for their selfish ends? Whatever sus- 
picion other nations may maintain, it is not the 
ambition of Japan to control all these vast masses 
of humanity or to make the Pacific Ocean her lake. 
As to a breach between America and Japan, that 
mighty sea may well rest peacefully true to its 
name. It is interesting to note that, while some 
people on this side of the Pacific speak of the com- 
pletion of the Panama Canal as a signal for the 
outbreak of war, the Japanese are looking forward 
to it with utmost complacency and the hope of 
increased trade. 

When the Suez Canal was about to be opened, 
many anticipated the event with consternation — 
among them no less a statesman than Sir Robert 
Peel, — ^fearing that the new waterway might serve 
the purposes of war rather than those of peace; 
but with us who have seen the working of this 
canal, should there not be a rational belief that 
its history may be repeated in that of Panama, 
and that through this great new artery will throb 
the life blood of the East and the West in ever 
swelling and rhythmic pulsations of vigour and 
health? 



CHAPTER III 

THE PAST IN ITS SIGNIFICANCE TO THE PRESENT 

IN compressing into the space of a few pages the 
history of Japan, which covers a period of 
twenty centuries, I shall try to make you ac- 
quainted with those larger landmarks in the 
genetic development of my people which may be 
of general interest to students of Culturgeschichte. 
Though I shall try to be chronological in my pre- 
sentation, I despair of any narration of concrete 
events in successive order. I shall endeavour to 
make a continuous story of our political and social 
evolution, but I shall not afflict you with long, 
outlandish names, however great and glorious 
they may sound in our own ears, unless they 
stand for something that is still concerned with 
living issues. I may have to recount some anec- 
dotes which, trifling in themselves, typify the 
spirit of an age. My idea is to cast a cursory 
glance at the past in its vital relations with the 
present, and with this end in view I must beg of 
my audience to borrow the hat of Fortunatus, or 
the more fashionable cap of Monsieur Maeter- 
linck's Tyltyl and turn its diamond, so that time 

48 



Si^niilicaiice of Past and Present 49 

and space may be shortened at our discretion. 
Only, I shall ask you not to turn it too far, for then 
there will be nothing left for me to say. 

Our history may be roughly divided into five 
periods, namely: 

1. The Ancient — (including the legendary age, 
which is strictly pre-historic) from the founding of 
the Empire down to the middle of the seventh 
century, and including the introduction of Bud- 
dhism. 

2. The Early Mediaeval — ^beginning with the 
radical political reforms of the seventh century 
and ending with the close of the twelfth century, 
covering epochs specially important in the history 
of art. 

3. The Late Mediseval — beginning with the 
rise of the military clans at the end of the twelfth 
century and concluding with the sixteenth cen- 
tury — an essentially heroic age under militant 
feudalism. 

4. The Modern — which was the age of the 
Tokugawa Shogun, characterised by peaceful 
feudalism and by encouragement of art and 
learning. 

5. The Present — beginning with the coronation 
of the present Emperor in 1868 and covering the 
period of occidentalisation. 

I. The history of Japan, like the history of 
every people, has, before daylight clearness, its age 
of dusky twilight, when all its forms are obscure. 
This is the age of myths, of the legends of deities. 



50 TKe Japanese Nation 

and of the achievements of demi-gods, whose 
actions are not to be reckoned by a mortal's 
standard of time or space. Disjointed narratives 
of exceedingly commonplace personages, anecdotes 
of heroic deeds, tales of impossible characters 
— ^in some particulars too a,ccurate and revolt- 
ingly realistic — fill the first few pages of our annals. 
Animistic stories that would rejoice the heart of a 
child or that may complement the Metamor pilosis 
of Ovid, are told in our book of Genesis. The 
beings of this dusky period furnish no end of 
material whereby the fanciful may work out 
theories in anthropology, sociology, and folk-lore. 

The account of this early age has been handed 
down as oral tradition in more or less metrical 
relation, and was first put into writing under the 
title of Kojiki {Records of Ancient Things), in the 
early part of the eighth century. The work 
of compilation was an intellectual feat of an ex- 
traordinary character, because the compiler 
had to use Chinese letters or ideographs to con- 
vey the sound of the Japanese language. This 
feat has been aptly compared by Captain Brinck- 
ley to the task of a man who has set himself to 
commit Shakespeare's plays to writing by the aid 
of the cuneiform characters of Babylon. 

Within a decade of this compilation, another 
was undertaken and called Nihongi {Chronicles of 
Japan), and this was written in genuine Chinese 
style. These two works, together with a third 
Koga-Shu {Ancient Records), of much lesser re- 



Significance of Past and Present 51 

nown, form our earliest historical documents. 
The narrators never claimed Divine inspiration, 
plenary or otherwise, when they recounted the 
story of creation ; — how the Creator and the Creat- 
rix, Isanagi and Isanami, (or in English translation 
the Male-that-invites and the Female- that -invites) 
met on the Floating Bridge of Heaven; — ^how 
when they thrust the gem-headed spear into the 
abyss of the sea and took it out, the drops which 
fell from its point congealed and formed the first 
of our islands. The historiographer continues to 
relate the birth of other islands, of the children 
born of the twin deities, and a long tale is told of 
the Sun-goddess, the chief of the native pantheon. 
Whether she was a real being of flesh and blood, 
or whether she was an embodiment of a solar myth 
or whether she was sym,bolic of a benignant and 
light-bringing government ; whether the dominion 
over which she ruled was an actual geographical 
locality or whether it was an aerial region, science 
has not decided any more definitely than it has 
some other questions — such as, whether the so- 
called deities, the culture heroes, were colonists, 
some from the continent and others from the 
Southern isles, or whether they were representa- 
tions of earthly and heavenly powers, or whether 
the gem-pointed spear was the javelin of a primi- 
tive folk, or whether it meant, as Dr. Warren 
in his Paradise Found suggests, the axis of the 
earth; whether the so-called Floating Bridge of 
Heaven was a canoe in which the daring couple 



52 XHe Japanese Nation 

found their way to Japan, or whether it implied a 
grander conception which connects this Httle 
planet of ours with the heavenly bodies above; 
— these queries and others, yes, even the form of 
the Sun-goddess herself, we leave behind in the 
shade for Imagination and Science to decipher, 
while we now move forward to the time when 
the crepuscular dawn brightens into daylight, and 
when we can discern figures somewhat more 
plainly. 

Before proceeding further, I may intercalate 
a remark or two on the subject of the name of 
our country. The land now called Japan was 
in its earliest, legendary days, called by a long 
poetical name, "The Country in the Midst of 
Luxuriant Reed-Plains," owing perhaps to the 
prevalence of marshes. After its conquest by 
Jimmu, the appellation "Yamato" (Mountain 
Portal?) was used to designate the country under 
his sway. In the Middle Ages, in official corre- 
spondence with China, the name "Hi-no-moto, " 
''The Source of the Sun," was adopted. At one 
time ''East" was used as against ''West," by 
which China was meant ; but the poetical designa- 
tion, "The Land of the Rising Sun," best de- 
scribes its location. The Chinese characters which 
were used in spelling Hi-no-moto gradually came, 
for brevity's sake, to be pronounced — a la chinois — 
Nippon. The later Chinese pronunciation of these 
characters was perverted by Marco Polo, who 
spelled it Jipangu, from which all the European 



Significance of Past and Present 53 

names for Nippon are derived. This sinified 
form certainly is a time-saving improvement upon 
the first august title — *'Toyo ashi hara no Na- 
katsu Kuni ! " But from the marshland — revenons 
d nos moutons! 

The fantastic episodes to which I have only 
slightly alluded by way of suggestion, have for 
their background the province of Izumo, which is 
situated on the south-western coast of Japan, 
just opposite the coast of Korea, and the legends 
may well be of Korean origin, preserved by the 
first settlers in Japan. As history begins to be less 
mythical, the scene shifts from that part of the 
main island to the southern part of Kyushu, 
where we meet a people claiming descent from the 
Sun-goddess rising to prominence. It is not un- 
reasonable to conjecture that they were a band 
of immigrants of Malay blood from the southern 
islands. 

In its advance eastward and northward, and in 
the course of fifteen years of fighting, this brave 
band brought the different tribes along its route 
under one government, at the head of which 
appears the founder of our royal dynasty — given 
the posthumous, honorific name of Jimmu Tenno, 
''the Emperor of Godlike Valour. " 

The date of his ascension to the throne is fixed 
upon the eleventh of February, 660 B.C., and 
the day is still observed as the anniversary of the 
foundation of our Empire, and is with us a time of 
universal rejoicing, such as the Fourth of July is 



54 TKe Japanese Nation 

with you, excepting that we are not advanced 
enough to express our jubilation and patriotism 
with the help of fire-crackers. To the ErRperor 
it is a solemn occasion, when he worships before 
the shrine of his ancestors, to thank them for 
the heritage they have left him, and for their 
constant protection. 

For several centuries after the death of the 
first Emperor, there is not one among his succes- 
sors who distinguished himself in any way. Like 
some tedious chapters in the Bible, history barely 
mentions their names and their diuturnal reigns. 
So strangely devoid of events, right after the sub- 
jugation of the savage tribes, are these reigns, 
that some historians have cast a doubt upon their 
very existence. An hypothesis has been advanced 
that, in those early ages, a year was counted from 
equinox to equinox, and hence its duration was 
only six months. It is also thought quite probable 
that, in editing and inditing ancient records, there 
was a miscalculation in the sexagenary cycle (a 
form of calendar in vogue in the East, according 
to which twelve years make one course and five 
courses, or sixty years, make a cycle), and until 
historical criticism establishes a more certain date, 
an error of about ten cycles^ — that is of six hundred 
years — may be suggested as a solution of these 
unnaturally long, uneventful reigns. This would 
bring the inauguration of our Empire almost 
within a half-century before Christ, and the 
demise of our first founder within a year of the 



Significance of Past and Present 55 

Christian era. It is also believed by some annal- 
ists and ethnologists that this curtailment of six 
centuHes brings our history into better accord 
with some records of China and Korea, as well as 
with some anthropological discoveries of recent 
date. India, China, and Korea were then already 
at the height of their civilisation. 

At whatever date the reign of Jimmu Tenno 
may be fixed, be it 660 B.C. or only 60 B.C., it is 
not unlikely that in his time, as well as in the 
reigns succeeding his, constant exchange in trade 
and in thought went on between Japan and the 
continent on the one hand, and with the Southern 
Seas on the other. Peaceful communication was 
now and then interrupted by warlike demonstra- 
tions, as in the case of the invasion of Korea about 
200 A.D., by our more or less mythical Amazonian 
Empress Jingu. If diplomatic courtesies were but 
seldom exchanged, private individuals must have 
passed to and fro. The first official communica- 
tion with China took place in the latter part of the 
third century (285 A.D.), when a Korean envoy 
brought with him a copy of the Analects of Confu- 
cius. This first introduction of letters marks an 
epoch in our history. Until this time the Japanese 
had not possessed any mode of writing. Under 
Korean teachers, eager students soon mastered 
the Chinese ideographs and the sciences that 
China had to teach us. 

The intellectual enlightenment, as well as the 
material progress which followed in the train of 



56 TTKe Japanese Nation 

Chinese studies, was overwhelmingly great. The 
Court adopted Chinese customs and costiimes; 
the learned and the rich strove in imitating celestial 
manners. Chinese art was bodily accepted, and 
its canons blindly followed. Upon Chinese models 
radical reforms were made in the laws. A new 
partition and distribution of land were even en- 
forced. A student at leisure might amuse himself 
by drawing parallels between the inflow of Chinese 
traditions into Japan and of Greek traditions into 
Italy — even comparing the coincident geographi- 
cal circumstance of Japan's turning her back to 
the continent of Asia, as does the Apennine 
peninsula to Hellas. 

While the Chinese leaven was thus vigorously 
working among us, by the middle of the sixth 
century, another, and perhaps a stronger germ of 
fermentation, of Hindu origin, found its way 
into our Court, whence it soon spread far and 
wide and deep; but as I shall speak of Buddhism 
again in my lecture on religions in Japan, I shall 
not devote much time to it here, but will pro- 
ceed to the second epoch of our histor\'. 

2. The adoption of Buddhism as a state and 
popiilar religion is s^Tichronous with what is known 
in otu* histor}' as the Nara period, corresponding 
to the eighth centmy of the Christian era (710-785 
A.D.) . It was the first great epoch of our authentic 
histor\' and is so called because — ^whereas the seat 
of government, or what amounts to the same 
thing, the residence of the sovereign, used to 



Significance of Past and Present 



D/ 



move from place to place with the beginning of 
each new reign — early in this centur}', Nara, in 
jCentral Japan, was selected as a permanent place 
for the capitol, and the physical stability of the 
Government, if I ma\' so term it, was for the first 
time sectired. If the Government and the Court 
were not as yet sharply distinguished, a nucleus 
of that germain distinction was now introduced. 
The ancient identification of state and reHgion — 
our word matsurigoto, meaning either the art of 
government or the observance of religious rites — 
still continued, and was, in fact, endorsed by the 
teaching of Confucius, who taught kingship by 
divine right or, perhaps more properly, kingship 
as divine duty. The Court, the Government, and 
the Church were all collected at Nara, the city 
itself being laid out in regular squares after the 
approved Chinese fashion, with gates and seques- 
tered quarters for different social ranks. It is 
even surmised by modem philologists that the 
very name ''Nara" is an ancient Korean term for 
capital. Here were fostered with tender care and 
displayed in lavish splendour all the arts learned 
from the continent. Buddhist images of all de- 
scriptions were cast in precious metals and bronze; 
magnificent temples, still standing and said to be 
the oldest wooden edifices in the world, were built 
with an elegance of decoration that now is the 
wonder of the art -world. Schools and universities 
were also started during this age. I have often 
wondered whether the effect of Korean culture 



58 TKe Japanese Nation 

upon ancient Japan was not analogous to Etrus- 
can influence upon Rome ; while the part played 
by China was comparable to what Greece did for 
Italy. 

Japan afforded an asylum for the continentals 
who sought refuge from the misgovernment and 
wars of their own home lands. Colonies of 
Koreans were given land in different parts of the 
country. Artisans were invited and settled 
in the towns. About the middle of the seventh 
century, the ruling sovereign wrote of the amal- 
gamation of different races in this stanza : — 

"Oranges on separate branches grown, 
When plucked are in one basket thrown." 

In 815 A.D. a census was taken in Kyoto, which 
showed the distribution of population according 
to classes: (i) the royal; (2) the divine; (3) the 
barbarian, — ^meaning respectively those connected 
by blood with the reigning family, the Japanese 
(or rather those who were in the train of the first 
Emperor), and the immigrants from the continent, 
as well as the pre-Japanese occupants of the soil. 
The returns showed that one-third of the popula- 
tion belonged to the last category. 

Thanks to Buddhism, the manners of our people 
were greatly softened. We do not hear of the 
soldiers of that time. We hear only of monks and 
nobles. Instead of war-drums stirring us to imi- 
tate the actions of the tiger, were heard the tran- 



Significance of Past and Present 59 

quil tones of temple bells. In place of steel armour 
and weapons, rustled Chinese silks and brocades. 
Literature, though it retained some traces of 
rugged, pristine vigour, began to show signs of 
feminine fastidiousness. Priests and nobles vied in 
writing love-poems and amatory epistles. It was 
indeed a golden age of poetry, and if it lacked 
manly vigour, it certainly showed elegant finesse, 
both in sentiment and in diction. This period is 
conspicuous, too, for having a number of women 
who distinguished themselves in belles-lettres. 
That the fair sex enjoyed great social freedom is 
evident from contemporary records, though they 
strangely enough omitted to claim the right of 
suffrage ! 

Not a few European students of history have 
observed that the predominance of the gentle sex 
in intellectual pursuits has proved a precursor of 
social decadence. Though America may reverse 
this verdict of historians, the Nara period con- 
firmed it only too well. With all its refinement, 
or rather because of this very refinement, in art 
and literature, the manly tasks of government and 
warfare came to be sadly neglected. The Emperor 
had for some time ceased to take a direct personal 
part in the government, this onerous and terri- 
bly terrestrial labour being left to his subjects, 
especially to the family of the Fujiwaras, who — 
as all mortals under similar conditions are tempted 
to do — exercised this delegated power to the 
aggrandisement of their own house. In their 



6o THe Japanese Nation 

hands the imperial throne was elevated in rever- 
ence "above the shelf of blue clouds, " — an expres- 
sion which anticipates the modern English phrase 
"to be shelved" — so that the person of the Em- 
peror was believed too sacred for profane eyes to 
behold. 

Needless to add, the royal power was reduced 
to a mere name — nay, to the shadow of a name. 
Not infrequently pressure was brought to bear 
upon emperors to abdicate at an early age. One 
babe was crowned at the age of two, only to abdi- 
cate at the age of four. Nor was he a lone example 
of august infancy. There was an instance of the 
throne being occupied by a child of five, and in 
several cases boys of ten years were placed upon 
it. Adult rulers, who might prove troublesome 
by asking questions about their rights and duties, 
were speedily persuaded to retire into monasteries. 
By dexterous manipulation did the regent family — • 
first the Fujiwaras and subsequently the Tairas — 
manage to concentrate all political power in their 
own hands ; but as these families abused this power 
for selfish gratification, their real infiuence grew 
weaker and weaker, so much so that it was not 
seriously heeded in the provinces, where powerful 
men and influential families took slight cognisance 
of the central authority, and practically dominated 
villages and counties, attaching to their persons 
guards of soldiers — very much as did the robber 
barons of the Rhine, or the manorial lords of Eng- 
land. These local magnates were the men who 



Significance of Past and Present 6i 

afterwards became feudal lords, or daimyos, and 
their retainers developed into the samurai of later 
days. 

A nation fallen into the silken languor and 
gilded euphemism of the Nara period, however 
delectable to the Epicurean, cannot escape politi- 
cal reaction, and such a reaction was brought 
about by the Emperor Kwammu, who, in order 
to effect a radical change, not only in administra- 
tion but in the very spirit of the people, removed 
the capital, late in the eighth century, from Nara 
to the present site of Kyoto. That period of our 
history, during which the government had its 
seat here for nearly four hundred years (794-1196 
A.D.), is known, as the period of Heian, literally 
^' Peace and Ease" — *'Sans souci" — the name by 
which the capital was called. The reforms insti- 
tuted by the heroic sovereign Kwammu included 
the separation of religion from politics — a task 
which sounds very modem in its conception and 
phraseology. He removed priests from posts of 
administration and restricted the number of re- 
ligious ceremonies and rites performed in the 
Court. The building of temples was also pro- 
hibited, without special license from the authori- 
ties. New laws, savouring more of Confucian 
doctrines than of Buddhist precepts, were now the 
order of the day; but after the death of this 
Emperor the course of events fell very much into 
the old lines. If anything, moral degeneration 
and political corruption went farther than they 



62 THe Japanese Nation 

had done during the previous epoch. We know 
how it was in England in the time of Charles the 
First, and especially how it was after the Restora- 
tion. Virility was sapped in the ruling classes and 
manly stamina undermined among the people. 
Society as a whole was steeped in sensual and 
sensuous amusements, and of this City of Peace 
it may be said that if war slaughtered its thou- 
sands, peace slew its tens of thousands. The hold 
which Buddhism had on the people was as great 
as ever, and there was untrammelled indulgence 
in learning and art. Superstitions, which curiously 
enough so often accompany luxury (is not supersti- 
tion itself a sort of mental luxury?), brought the 
clergy more and more into prominence. And as 
religion was not rigidly concerned with morality, 
a dissolute clergy could exercise power without 
relinquishing pleasure. 

They learned art primarily for outward embel- 
lishment, but also necessarily for the expression of 
their inner self ; they trifled with learning chiefly for 
social entertainment but did not study in search of 
truth. Is it any wonder that art survived learn- 
ing? Altogether it was an age of laxity of morals, 
of effeminacy of manners, of imbecility of religious 
faith. It was, however, this period that gave to 
Japanese civilisation many of those features which 
still remain objects of admiration. Its architec- 
ture, or what there is of it after the devastation of 
many conflagrations, its works of art, the gentle and 
graceful manners and customs of the people, our 



Significance of Past and Present 63 

landscape-gardening, and painting and poetry — 
these are the greatest legacies left by this sybaritic 
age. Herein lie the present charms of Kyoto. 
We should have had more of these art-gifts, had 
they not been destroyed by the vandalism of the 
latter part of this period, when the military power 
of «the Minamoto clan, which had been slowly 
forming in distant provinces, especially in the 
eastern part of the country, succeeded in putting 
a stop to the exercise of an effete authority on the 
part of the Court. The leader of this clan, Yori- 
tomo, organised a system of feudalism and estab- 
lished his government in the town of Kamakura,not 
indeed as the usurper of royal power, but under the 
name of Shogun, the marechal of His Majesty, as 
the vice-regent and the majordomo of the Emperor. 
3. This ushers in the third era of our history, — 
namely, the militant age of feudalism, lasting for 
some four centuries, the early part of which is 
known as the Kamakura period and the latter as 
the Ashikaga. It is one of the most stirring and 
romantic epochs of our history. It is an epic age 
of heroism, of daring, of action and achievement. 
If literature is the mirror of the age, the writings 
* of this period certainly reflect a spirit very differ- 
ent from that of those preceding it. We meet 
with very few of those debonair romances which 
in former times called forth sighs and blushes 
from ladies and nobles. We meet instead tales of 
adventure, combat, and battle — such as enliven 
the pages of Froissart and Scott. 



64 TTHe Japanese Nation 

The traditions of culture had not entirely died 
away. On the contrary, the samurai patronised 
and fostered different arts, and so we find in the 
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the beginnings 
of the tea ceremony, and of flower arrangement. 
The artists of this age of hero-worship and of 
romantic adventures, naturally delight to paint 
portraits and the spirit of motion. Sculpture 
created statues of heroic size and character. This 
age bequeathed some few works of art and of 
literature which may claim immortality; but the 
best product of this period was men, and these 
of the type of Nietzsche's Uebermenschen — men of 
strong masculine calibre, who could wield a sword 
and govern a kingdom; a type of men who have 
become household names for terror and strength, 
as well as for generosity and tenderness. If his- 
tory is, as Carlyle says, the biography of great 
men, the history of this militant age is beyond 
doubt the most eventful in our annals of feudalism. 
It has certainly left a marked impress upon the 
moral ideas of our people. 

This age naturally brought into strong relief the 
figure of the warrior, the samurai. We speak 
of it as one of constant fighting and of horrible 
bloodshed; but warfare itself developed a cast of 
character, daring in deed, patient in endurance, 
subdued by a sense of the vanity of life and of the 
mutability of earthly things — a sense that Bud- 
dhism helped in large measure to encourage. To 
know the sadness of things was a characteristic 



Significance of Past and Present 65 

of the true samurai. Hence the consummate 
product of this age is not a fierce fighter, but a 
strong personaHty, with the tenderest of emotions ; 
a man who has under control all violent passions, 
whose tears are kept back by sheer force of will. 

Have you not seen a picture of a Japanese war- 
rior on his steed, pausing under a blooming cherry 
tree? Every Japanese child is familiar with the 
leader of a great army, who, in the course of his 
march, had to advance over a path strewn with 
the wind-blown petals of the cherry. Here he 
halted, deeming it desecration to trample upon 
the carpet of blossoms. 

The samurai of those days looked upon the 
profession of arms, not as a matter of slaughter 
but as a means of mental and spiritual training. 
He went to battle, and he prepared for combat, 
not so much to gain a victory as to try his skill 
with his peer. Fair play and the square deal were 
the chief attractions of warfare. 

We read of a young warrior of the sixteenth 
century, Kato by name, engaged in a duel with 
Suwoden. When the latter's sword broke, the 
former threw away his own weapon ; for it was not 
fair to take advantage of the misfortune of one's 
enemy. In the grapple that followed, Suwoden 
got the better of Kato, but as Suwoden had his 
hand upon his enemy's throat, he said; — "It is not 
samurai-like for me, sir, to strangle you, who did not 
slash me when my sword was broken. Now I pay 
you back; we are on equal terms. This is only a 



66 THe Japanese Nation 

skirmish, let us meet each other again in full 
battle array." They parted, and in a few days 
they confronted each other again at the head of 
their armies. While the battle was raging and 
the forces of both were in disorder, the two heroes 
came forth and were soon engaged in single com- 
bat. They both knew that Suwoden's was a 
losing cause. He himself felt that he came to die 
at the hand of one who had once saved his life; 
Kato on his part had come to the field with the 
determination to give a ray of hope by his own 
death, to his falling enemy, who likewise had 
spared his life. It was a strange conflict. Neither 
party seemed to make the right stroke. Both 
showed ridiculous weakness, as though they were 
ready to fall at the first thrust. And when 
through a mishap a slight touch of Kato's sword 
inflicted on Suwoden a shallow wound, he fell, 
exclaiming, "I am beaten, sir! Take my head to 
thy general as an addition to thy many trophies. " 
Then Kato raised him up quickly, assuring him 
that the cut was not fatal; but the wounded war- 
rior begged that his head be taken by one so 
worthy of it. According to the etiquette of war, 
this was done, and after his triumphal return, 
Kato interred, with due ceremony and with many 
hot tears, the mortal remains of his friend and 
opponent. 

What do you think of a mode of warfare during 
the hottest engagements of which poetical tourna- 
ments took place or repartee was exchanged 



Significance of Past and Present 67 

between the belligerent parties? The same ideals 
held sway even in the siege of Port Arthur. It so 
often happened in that siege that, when Japanese 
soldiers had occupied a trench, they left behind 
them a sad or comical letter in broken Russian 
or else a droll picture, for the Russians who might 
next take possession of it. Then the Russians 
would leave behind them some well-meaning 
memento for the next Japanese party that 
might retake the trench. 

''War is hell"; — but in mediasval warfare the 
sense of honour often robbed it of its horrors, its 
stigmata, and its subterfuges. 

Women, too, imbibed in those militant times 
those virtues which we still admire in Spartan and 
Roman matrons. They did not as a rule advance 
to the front. It was their duty to stay at home, 
and attend to the training of their children. 
Naijo, the inner or interior help, was their avoca- 
tion. So, to keep one's family intact and in good 
order, while the master was in the field, was what 
was expected of woman. But if for some reason 
or other she found that she was a hindrance, how 
unflinchingly she sacrificed herself! We read of 
a young man infatuated by a girl. When she 
found that her beauty kept him from marching to 
the front, she disfigured her face with a red-hot 
iron. We read of another young warrior who, 
soon after he left the threshold of his home, where 
he reluctantly bade his last farewell to his wife, 
received a note, a few lines of which will show her 



68 TKe Japanese Nation 

decision; — "Since we were joined in ties of eternal 
wedlock, now two short years ago, my heart has 
followed thee, even as its shadow follows an object, 
inseparably bound soul to soul, loving and being 
loved." Then she goes on to say, ''Why should 
I, to whom earth no longer offers hope or joy, why 
should I detain thee or thy thoughts by living? 
Why should I not rather await thee on the road 
which all mortal kind must sometime tread?" 

This again is only the prototype of what re- 
peatedly happened during the Russo-Japanese 
War, when aged mothers were known to stab 
themselves in order to encourage their sons to 
go forth and not to have their thoughts drawn 
backward. 

I have caused you to linger among our mediaeval 
warriors perhaps longer than you care ; for without 
understanding them, their ideas in regard to life, 
to duty, to right and to wrong, modem Japan 
will remain unintelligible. If you can grasp their 
view-point, many things which seem so queer and 
paradoxical in Japanese life will become clearer. 
That life may strike you at first sight as very 
un-christian ; but, strange to say, it was just at 
the time when the power and honotn* of the 
samurai were at their height, that Christianity 
reached Japan and found a field white imto harvest 
■ — and this not among the down-trodden masses 
only, but among the bravest of the gentry and the 
most genteel dames. 

It is indeed a remarkable feature of the mission- 



Significance of Past and Present 69 

ary enterprise of this time, that it permeated the 
highest social classes as well as the lowest. Only 
in recent years, is it becoming clear what a deep 
and far-reaching spiritual influence it exercised 
on the new converts. Some of our historical 
personages (inclusive of women) noted for purity 
or strength of character, whose religious profession 
was not generally known, are now foimd to have 
been followers of Jesus. One can very easily 
imagine new religionists, in zeal for their faith, 
sometimes taking an imprudent course that would 
offend the more conservative of their countrymen. 
If history repeats itself, it seems to me that no 
history does so more frequently than ecclesiastical. 
A study of its earliest days and of those following 
the Reformation, will give a clue to the right 
understanding of the experience through which the 
Roman Catholic Church in Japan passed in the 
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Unfortu- 
nately for the papal — not to say Christian — cause, 
the one respect in which our church history dif- 
fered from that of Europe, lay in the fact that 
the blood of our martyrs did not turn out to be 
"the seed of the church.'* Does this prove that 
the Japanese converts were so weak as to deny 
their Lord at the sight of the sword and of fire? 
Were they traitors and apostates? On the con- 
trary, thousands of them willingly and joyously 
acknowledged the cross and died for it. Martyr- 
dom was quite in the line of Bushido teaching. 
Equally samurai-like, if not Christ-like, was the 



70 THe Japanese Nation 

step taken by a large band of believers, who rose 
in arms as the last resort of their faith. The so- 
called rebellion of Shimabara (1638) was the ex- 
treme measure of the Christians* protest against 
political and religious tyranny. It ended most 
disastrously for their cause, and with the summary 
slaughter of the best Christian knights ended all 
public profession of the religion of Christ. Hence- 
forth Christianity was known as Ja-kyo, an evil 
faith, a religion that encourages treason, rebellion, 
deception, assassination, poisoning, and all clan- 
destine tricks and magical incantations. To con- 
jure the name of Yaso, as Jesus is pronounced in 
Japanese, was to call upon all the legions of evil 
spirits. Whoever survived the rebellion alluded 
to, was put to the sword. Every nook and cor- 
ner was searched lest one should escape. A strict 
census was yearly taken by the Buddhist monas- 
teries, for the Buddhist priests of those times were 
in no small measure responsible for the blood of the 
Christian martyrs. 

The decisive stand Japan took against Christ- 
ianity affords a most fruitful theme for specula- 
tion. If the country had been brought entirely 
under the control of the Jesuits, what would have 
been its fate? It is not probable that it would 
have lost its political independence and simply 
succumbed to Spanish rule; but it is conceivable 
that, but for the eradication of the incipient faith, 
Japan would now be a second or third-rate Catho- 
lic power in the East. If Japan had formed a part 



Significance of Past and Present 71 

of Christendom, sequestrated and humble, and 
continued as such from the seventeenth century, 
it is presumable that the mental affinity between 
the East and the West would have grown closer. 
On the other hand, it is likely that the Catholic 
Church would have proved an additional factor 
in the conflicting and disturbing forces at work 
in the country and would have prevented Japan 
from realising the unique peace she enjoyed, and 
the arts she developed, as well as the racial homo- 
geneity and compact nationalism she maintained — 
all of which marked the following epoch of her 
history. 

4. The Shogunate, which represented the 
actual governing power, passed, after the eleventh 
century, from one family to another in quite 
rapid succession until the beginning of the seven- 
teenth century, when it fell to the lot of lyeyasu, 
head of the Tokugawa house, in whose hand it was 
centralised and elaborately organised. 

On the ground that all the Spaniards and Portu- 
guese were followers of the "evil sect, " they were 
ordered to leave forever the "sacred soil of the 
divine land," as we call Japan. Before the close 
of 1639, there was thus left neither a missionary 
nor a merchant of either of these nationalities, 
except some few who were naturalised or who 
apostatised. 

Thus was consummated by the founder of the 
Tokugawa family, the exclusive measures so jeal- 
ously maintained by his successors for two and a 



72 XHe Japanese Nation 

half centuries. His policy did not stop here. It 
was as inclusive as it was exclusive. So rigorous 
was the Edict of 1637, that not only were for- 
eigners forbidden to land on the Japanese coast, 
but the natives were prohibited from leaving it. 
Ships above a certain tonnage were not allowed 
to be built. Prior to this period, the Japanese 
had been free to go from and return to their coun- 
try at will. Many had been the ships that plied 
between Java, Manila, Annam, Siam, Malacca, 
China, Korea, and India, and there are interesting 
pages regarding our colonial activity in the history 
of those times. Now all these enterprises received 
a death-blow by the stroke of a pen. 

Cut off from the rest of the world by this ex- 
clusive and inclusive policy, there was formed a 
society impervious to ideas from without, and fos- 
tered within by every kind of paternal legislation. 
Methods of education were cast in a definite 
mould ; press censure was vigorously exercised ; no 
new or alien thought was tolerated, and if any 
head harboured one, it was in immediate danger 
of being dissevered from the body that upheld it ; 
even matters of f riseur, costume, and building were 
strictly regulated by the State. Social classes of the 
most elaborate order were instituted. Etiquette 
of the most rigorous form was ordained. It was 
during this period that the tea ceremony, flower 
arrangement, and other devices for mollifying 
social manners reached a high degree of perfection. 
Even the manner of committing suicide by splitting 



Significance of Past and Present 73 

one's bowels was minutely prescribed. Industries 
were forced into specified channels, thus retarding 
economic development. As no relations existed 
with foreign powers, international wars did not 
trouble us. Peace reigned within the Empire, but 
only such peace as would be possible in the slumber 
of the Middle Ages. 

If, however, in the Middle Ages, clouds were 
gathering to burst amidst the thunder and light- 
ning of the Renaissance and the Reformation, 
conditions in Japan were not dissimilar; for, in 
spite of political and economic inactivity, the 
Tokugawa period was pregnant with mighty forces 
■ — forces which, as we shall see, were soon to reveal 
themselves in the awakening life of the New Era. 

Recent events in China have made us familiar 
with the fact that her present reigning dynasty 
dates back to 1644. That was the year when the 
capital of the former dynasty, the Ming, was 
captured. As two centuries previously the fall of 
Constantinople drove Grecian scholars into Italy, 
there to disseminate the seeds of the Renaissance, 
so the fall of Nanking made Chinese scholars seek 
refuge on our shores, there to spread anew the 
teachings of Chinese classics and ultimately to 
bring about the regeneration of the Island Empire. 

The revival of Confucian classics reminded the 
scholars of Japan that their allegiance was due 
solely and singly to the Tenno (Emperor), and not 
to the Shogun. The simultaneous revival of pure 
Shinto, which inculcated the divine right and de- 



74 TKe Japanese Nation. 

scent of the Emperor, also conveyed the same po- 
Htical evangel. Whispers, started among priests 
and savants that the Shogun must go, spread from 
ear to ear, and in spite of everything his authority 
could devise to stem the current, the new doctrine 
took wings from one end of the country to the 
other. He who ran might read the ominous signs 
of the times. The abrogation of the Shogun only 
awaited the slightest provocation, and this wc.s 
supplied by the coming of an American — the 
appearance of Commodore Perry in our waters, in 
1853- Very naturally he believed that the Sho- 
gun or Tycoon, as he was sometimes called, was the 
legitimate and ultimate power in the Empire, and 
opened negotiations with him. Better versed in 
world-politics than the Emperor's Court, which 
had not been in touch with actual affairs, the 
Shogunal government accepted the Commodore's 
proposals and signed a treaty of peace, com- 
merce and navigation, in the spring of 1854. 
This high-handed proceeding on the part of the 
Shogun precipitated the crisis. Those who were 
opposed to him and advocated that the Emperor 
alone had the power to enter into foreign rela- 
tions, were called Imperialists, and they de- 
manded that the treaty be nullified and that the 
Shogun forfeit the authority he so unscrupulously 
abused. 

Keiki, the last of. the Shoguns, willingly sur- 
rendered it, because he knew well enough that he 
held it only in trust. Not so the feudal lords who 



Significance of Past and Present 75 

had been created by his house. They naturally 
desired the continuance of the old regime. Many 
daimyos espoused the falling cause of the Toku- 
gawa Shogun, but a still larger number of power- 
ful houses arrayed themselves under the brocade 
banner of the Emperor. Ever since the Shimabara 
rebellion, people had not known war, and now 
the whole country was rent by a commotion from 
which no samurai could be free. The god of war 
decided in favour of the Imperial cause and the 
Tokugawas retired to private life (Prince Keiki, 
still living, is a respected gentleman of seventy- 
five) and the systfem of Shogunal government 
was abolished. 

5. This episode in our history is often called a 
revolution; but the term is misleading, as it sug- 
gests many an event known by that name in 
Europe. "Restoration" will better express the 
character of this crisis, because the issue involved 
was the restoration of the Emperor to his legiti- 
mate authority. This was consummated in 1868, 
and marks the beginning of the present reign. It 
is from this date that we count the new era, the 
era of Meiji — ''The Enlightened Reign," — the 
present year (19 12) being the forty -fifth of Meiji. 

Though the Imperialist party commenced its 
hostility to the Tokugawas by opposing their 
policy of opening the country to foreign trade, a 
few bitter encounters with European gun-boats 
soon convinced them of the futility of exclusivism. 
It is, however, only just to state that a large num- 



76 THe Japanese Nation 

ber of those who publicly denounced the treaty, 
entertained in their hearts no hostile feeling regard- 
ing intercourse with western nations, and when 
they cried "Down with the western barbarians!'* 
they used this slogan only to hide their real inten- 
tion, which was the overthrow of the Shogunate. 
In the midst of national convulsions the Emperor 
died, leaving the throne to his son, the present 
ruler, Mutsuhito — then a lad of sixteen. Within 
a year of his coronation, the Imperialists gained a 
cpmplete victory over the forces of the Shogun, so 
that by the year 1869 the country was pacified, 
and the duarchy, which had lasted from the twelfth 
century, was entirely dissolved, and an un- 
hampered monarchy re-established. The young 
Emperor, fortunately of sterling character, com- 
manding intellect, and good physique, signalised 
his new reign by proclaiming on oath, on the sixth 
of April, 1 868, the five principles of his government, 
known as the Charter Oath of Five Articles. This 
proclamation was the Magna Charta of the Japan- 
ese Empire. It runs : 

1. An Assembly widely convoked shall be es- 
tablished, and all affairs of State decided by 
impartial discussion. 

2. All administrative matters of State shall be 
conducted by the co-operative efforts of the 
governing and the governed. 

3. All the people shall be given opportunity to 
satisfy their legitimate desires. 



Significance of Past and Present 'j^ 

4. All absurd usages shall be abandoned, and 
justice and righteousness shall regulate all 
actions. 

5. Knowledge and learning shall be sought for all 
over the world, and thus the foundations of 
the imperial polity be greatly strengthened. 

New Japan has been governed in accordance 
with this enlightened policy. 

The year 1871 saw the abolition of feudalism 
with the voluntary surrender of their fiefs by the 
daimyos themselves. At that time there was 
already in the minds of a few, as is also indicated 
in the first article cited, the vision of a constitu- 
tional government. The more radically-minded 
among them would have liked to have seen it 
realised at once; but calmer counsel prevailed, 
and the most advanced statesmen estimated that 
it would take two or three decades to prepare the 
nation for a limited monarchy. Not only was 
education made compulsory between the years of 
six and twelve, but education in the wider sense 
of self-governing citizenship was insisted upon. 
For instance, a deliberative body was formed, 
consisting of old and tried public servants, and 
soon after an annual assembly of provincial 
governors was convened. Publications relating to 
parliamentary forms of government were trans- 
lated and disseminated. In short, every method 
was employed to prepare the nation for the final 
adoption of the constitution. I may say it took 



78 TKe Japanese Nation 

over twenty years, from the time a constitution 
was seriously discussed until the time when it was 
finally promulgated in 1 889. Side by side with 
the preparation for civil liberty, reforms were set 
in motion in every social and political institution. 
A broad basis for intelligent democracy was to be 
secured by erasing social distinctions. 

The time-honoured social classification of citi- 
zens into the samurai, or military and professional 
men, the tillers of the soil, the artisans and lastly 
the merchants, was abolished. 

The defence of the country was entirely re- 
modelled. The place of the samurai as defenders 
of the country was taken by a standing army, 
raised by a system of conscription. The old 
samurai descended, as it were, into the lower or- 
ders, and in so doing elevated the moral tone of 
the masses by instilling their code of honour into 
their hitherto despised inferiors. The populace, 
being now amenable to military duties, were 
raised, so to speak, to the ranks of the samurai. 

It was a great experiment to prove whether an 
army or navy, necessarily consisting according 
to conscription laws very largely of peasantry, 
could be made an efficient engine of territorial 
defence. The test of this experiment came when, 
in 1877, the so-called Saigo rebellion occurred, 
in which the flower of the Satsuma samurai, always 
noted for their bravery, was met by the Imperial 
troops, recruited by conscription. It was soon 
discovered, to our amazement and satisfaction, 



Significance of Past and Present 79 

that in our peasantry was the material for an 
efficient army. As for the material for the navy, 
the brave fisher-folk of our coasts formed a more 
than adequate supply. 

It was not only in military institutions that 
reforms were introduced and bore fruit, as has 
been demonstrated to the world at large in the 
three wars in which we have since been engaged — • 
the wars with China in 1894-5, with Russia in 
1904-5, and at the time of the Boxer revolt in 
1900. 

The progress made in the military and naval 
regimes is but a small part of our national pro- 
gress. In political life, the transformation was, 
if anything, more marvellous. When, as the 
result of twenty years' preparation, the nation 
was deemed ripe for representative government, 
the constitution was, in 1889, proclaimed in the 
name of the Emperor, and the first parliament 
took its seat the following year. This constitu- 
tional experiment — the first to be tried by an 
Asiatic people — was watched with much interest, 
if not curiosity, by outsiders. It is enough to 
state here that an experience of twenty years has 
deprived the constitution of the character of an 
experiment. It has come to stay on Asiatic soil. 
It even threatens to invade the continent in a far 
more radical form. As to party government, how- 
ever, we have as yet only a feeble semblance of it ; 
but here we feel no regret — ^in the face of recent 
examples this country has shown us. 



8o XHe Japanese Nation 

The Gregorian calendar was adopted and the 
Christian Sabbath made a regular holiday. Laws 
were codified on the principles of the most ad- 
vanced jurisprudence, yet without violating the 
best traditions of the people. Higher education 
in cultural and technical lines was encouraged and 
patronised. New industries were constantly intro- 
duced or old ones improved. Means of communi- 
cation — shipping, railways, the telegraph and 
telephone — have been steadily extended. Changes 
in all the departments of national and commercial 
life are still transpiring; but an account of them 
would take me out of the pale of history into the 
story of the Present. 

This statement is often repeated — ^that Japan 
has achieved in five decades what it took Europe 
five centuries to accomplish. The privilege of 
youth lies in the inheritance of the dearly-bought 
experience of age. We are forever indebted to 
our older sisters in the family of nations. Who 
can believe nowadays that the Western Powers 
at one time seriously discussed the partitioning of 
Japan? This was actually contemplated about 
forty years ago. 

I have sketched in rough outline the course of 
our historical development to give you an idea 
that the institutions of modem Japan, introduced, 
as many of them are, from abroad, have all been 
the outcome of genetic growth, no great violence 
having ever been done to the law of continuity. 
It is often said that our progress is confined to our 



Significance of Past and Present 8i 

leaders; but you do not hear that a mob of the 
people destroyed a telegraph line or a railway 
track, or set fire to a schoolhouse. 

Psychologists and sociologists have always 
looked upon the progress of Japan with no little 
suspicion. Le Bon and others of his school called 
the occidentalisation of Japan a thin veneer. They 
thought that our army, trained and armed after 
Western pattern, was only for show. They thought 
that our navy was a plaything, invincible only in 
peace, and probably invisible in war; for never, 
they said, could an Oriental organise or manage 
such an intricate machine as a modern gun-boat 
in the face of actual danger. They thought that 
our education in Western science and philosophy 
was but apish mimicry, for, they avowed, white 
philosophy and white science can never penetrate 
the brown head. I do not know where Monsieur 
Le Bon now stands; but the nations that have 
seen our people not only in times of peace and 
play, but in those dark hours which try men's 
souls, have judged differently. The American 
people, with their youthful optimism and broad 
human sympathy, have always been the first to 
recognise whatever steps we have taken in the 
onward march. 

When other nations tried to bar our progress or 
slur our reputation, America always stood for us 
and with us. Indeed American sympathy has 
been a potent influence in the latest phase of 
our national life. 



82 THe Japanese Nation 

There are many pages in our recent history 
which will be unintelligible, unless the reader 
keeps in mind the presence of hostile and friendly 
foreign Powers. No nation of our day and genera- 
tion can live in isolation, any more than can a 
lower organism, and as ecology decides what a 
plant will be, so does foreign environment deter- 
mine a nation's course. Which nation has re- 
tarded and which accelerated our growth? Which 
offers, or will offer, a favourable, and which a 
fatal, condition ? We shall speak in a future lecture 
of the part played by America in our national 
development — ^how her Stars heralded to the 
world the rising of our Sun. 



CHAPTER IV 

RACE AND NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS 

IT is related of Napoleon that when the vexed 
question of his pedigree was once discussed, 
he cut the Gordian knot in his characteristic way 
by the naive and pregnant affirmation, "/e suis 
moi-meme un ancetre.'" To an egoist or the 
nouveau riche, this reply may be all-sufficient; to 
a vkce already possessed of a tall ancestral tree, 
the question of whence they came and how they 
came to be where they are, is a natural intellectual 
pursuit, replete with practical consequences, and 
when the cult of that race happens to consist 
largely in the veneration of its forebears, a know- 
ledge of genealogy will free them from the charge 
of worshipping the ''unknown gods. " 

In my last lecture, I hinted that among Asiatic 
peoples we are the youngest. We used to boast 
of a history of twenty-seven centuries, but it 
seems more probable that it is to be shortened to 
the space of twenty. This brings the birth of our 
nation to the time of the beginning of the Christian 
era, but even for four or five centuries after this, 
our history can hardly be called strictly authentic. 

83 



84 TKe Japanese Nation 

When documents so accurately compiled as that 
of the Hebrews, claiming moreover divine inspira- 
tion, are still constantly being improved and recon- 
structed, we may well expect no slight alterations 
in the rendering of our chronicles from the hand 
of future investigators. 

Whatever the exact dates in the early records 
of Japan, this much is certain — that compared 
with Korea, China, or India, we are a young 
nation, and stand to these hoary peoples, as far 
as age is concerned, as did the Germanic folk to 
the Romans, or, more aptly, to the Phoenicians 
and Egyptians, and are thus the heir of all the 
ages of Asiatic tradition. 

When our forefathers lived by the hunt or by 
crude agriculture — which can scarcely be called 
agriculture in the modem sense, being what Hahn 
calls Hackhau (hoe culture) as against Ackerbau, — 
without letters, without cities, the Koreans and 
the Chinese were in the enjoyment of a high civili- 
sation. It is possible, as we have seen, that 
some adventurous spirits among these peoples 
braved the sea that separated Japan from their 
home. Aided by a favourable wind, a bark can 
cross these waters without much difficulty. Indeed, 
Japan is geographically quite accessible from many 
quarters. An intrusion — not in great hordes but 
in single files as it were — ^from the north is not 
impossible either from the Asiatic continent by 
way of Kamtchatka and Saghalien or from America 
by the stepping-stones of the Aleutian and Kurile 



Race and National CKaracteristics 85 

Islands. The same is true of a passage from the 
South Sea Islands, there being an almost continu- 
ous stretch of archipelagoes. 

A group of islands under a genial sky and with 
enchant ng scenery may well have allured races 
from the torrid south or from the frigid north, or 
from places of corresponding latitude on the conti- 
nent, whence extremes of cold and heat or whence 
misgovernment or overpopulation might have 
driven the inhabitants. 

The Chinese had from of old a pretty legend of 
three mountainous islands in the eastern sea, 
where the dwellers quaff the elixir of life and enjoy 
immortal bliss. It was in search of this place, 
Horai Mountain, as it was called, that a Chinese 
Emperor, Shi-Houang, sent a physician in the 
third century B.C. It is said that the envoy set 
out, taking with him three hundred youths and 
three hundred maidens, and, landing in Japan, 
was loath to return and settled permanently near 
Mount Fuji. Jofuku, for such was the name 
of the physician, did not pretend to be the dis- 
coverer of Japan, much less the founder of a new 
nation. 

I give this legend as an instance of old-time 
intercourse between" the continent and our islands, 
and as an illustration how our people may easily 
have come under Mongolian influence. Only there 
seems as yet little philological affinity estabhshed 
between the continental peoples and the Japanese. 
In this respect a relationship with the Malay races 



86 TTHe Japanese Nation. 

promises to be closer, though as yet no definite 
conclusion is reached. 

But before the Malays or the Chinese reached 
the shore of Japan, a hairy race of Northern blood, 
large in numbers and known as the Ainu, seem to 
have held the entire country in possession. • 

Were the Ainu, then, the original inhabitants 
of the Japanese islands? According to their own 
tradition, when they came they found a people 
settled there, a description of whom suggests a 
race akin to the Lapps. Tradition and archaeolog- 
ical remains are responsible for the hypothesis that 
the autochthons of our land were this pigmy race, 
fair of skin, gentle in spirit, and nocturnal in habits. 
It is said that they never made their appearance 
in the day-time. They were known as Korupo- 
unguri — Korupo being the name of a plant, the 
Nadosmia Japonica, and Unguri, like Ungam 
(Hungary) meaning a man — so called because, 
according to their legend, they lived under the 
large, round leaves of this plant. They were 
superseded by the hirsute Ainu, but whence these 
came we do not know ; though this much is certain, 
that they were once in possession of the whole of 
the islands, as is shown by the geographical names 
they left behind them. In the course of time the 
Ainu themselves were gradually driven north- 
ward, and only a handful of them, amounting to 
about eighteen thousand, still live in the northern 
island of Hokkaido (Yezo). As they are now 
found, they have not yet emerged from the Stone 



Race and National CKaracteristics 87 

Age, possessing no art beyond a primitive form of 
horticulture, being ignorant even of the rudest 
pottery. Their fate resembles that of your Ameri- 
can Indians, though they are much more docile in 
character. Who drove away these Ainu, is a 
question not clearly answered; but it is probable 
that tribes allied to the Koreans crossed the Sea 
of Japan and, being much more advanced in civili- 
sation, made themselves masters of Ainu territory. 
There is some ground to believe that it is the 
traditions of Korean tribes which largely formed 
the beginnings of our chronicles. The headquar- 
ters of the early Korean colonists were in the 
province of Idzumo, which faces Korea across the 
sea, and where still linger the oldest historical 
legends; but these people, whoever they might 
have been, did not multiply and replenish the 
entire land, much less subdue it ; for another race, 
stronger and more robust, seems to have occupied 
the southern part of Japan, where they formed 
a community quite independent of the Idzumo 
people. Were they Malays? No evidence can 
be drawn from legends or traditions. Indeed, there 
were no legends or traditions of Malay immigra- 
tion; but the morphological characteristics of the 
occupiers of Idzumo and of Kyushu show marked 
divergence in the form of their skulls, the colour 
of the skin, and the shape of the face. 

Thus the farther we trace our lineage, the more 
entangled grow the threads which as warp and woof 
went to weave our nationality. We are still on 



88 THe Japanese Nation 

the hunt after our ancestor. With better reason 
than can usually be assigned for the proverbial dis- 
sensions of scholars, the latter are not yet agreed 
about our ancestral trunk, some of them even 
delighting in fantastic theories. To take a few 
examples; — the old Dutch scholar Kaempfer be- 
lieved that the primeval Japanese were a scion 
of the people who built the Tower of Babel. Hyde- 
Clarke identifies them with Turano-Africans who 
have travelled eastward through Egypt, China, 
and Japan. Macleod took them to be one of the 
lost tribes of Israel. The presence of curly hair 
causes Siebold to believe they were related to the 
^'Alfuros" — Melanesians and Caroline Islanders. 
Some years ago, a young man went to infinite 
pains to draw parallels between the language, cus- 
toms, and institutions of the Hittites and of the 
Japan se — only our knowledge of the Hittites is 
not much greater than our knowledge of the canals 
in Mars. Whitney and Morton, and latterly Grif- 
fis, do not hesitate in tracing us to a Caucasic 
ancestry. 

In view of the fact that one's pedigree can be 
verified in more ways than one — anatomical, philo- 
logical, religious, traditional, and what not— we 
may one day arrive at a solution from some 
most unexpected quarter. 

Just here I may be allowed to make a digression 
which may throw some light on the race-affinity, 
hitherto unsuspected between Japan and Europe, 
whoever may have occupied the West of Europe 



Race and National CKaracteristics 89 

contemporaneously with the beginnings of Japan. 
Excavations and documents point to the fact that 
the ancient method of burial in Japan was first in 
barrows and later in dolmens. The barrow is 
simply a mound of earth, such as the Chinese heap 
over their dead. The dolmen is an underground 
chamber of stone with the earth mounded over 
it. Now the interesting point is that no dolmen 
has hitherto been found in China or Korea. In 
fact, dolmens like those we have in Japan have 
thus far not been discovered in any part of Asia 
east of the Caspian Sea, and Western Europe 
alone offers exactly analogous types. Of course, 
similarity of this kind may be a chance coincidence 
and no more ; but it is, nevertheless, interesting to 
learn that dolmens do not date from a period 
anterior to the third century B.C. Can it be 
possible, is the next question — can it be possible 
that the founder of our Empire, the leader of the 
last and the most powerful band of settlers migrat- 
ing to our shores, had his home — he or his ances- 
tors, somewhere in remote Western Europe? A 
caustic querist may ask, — Did the pre-historic 
progenitors of modern Japanese imitate the Euro- 
pean mode of sepulture? We shall look forward 
with eagerness to further revelations which science 
may make to us. 

Some years ago, when I was in Paris, I had the 
pleasure of meeting Professor Hamy, one of the 
greatest craniologists o^ the day, who, as the result 
of his examination of several hundred Japanese 



90 TKe Japanese Nation 

skulls, told me that he had never found traces of a 
more extensive miscegenation than in the Japan- 
ese. When the fifty or sixty different nationalities 
that have come to the United States are more 
thoroughly amalgamated and make a more homo- 
geneous race, his remark will more likely apply to 
America. To further elucidate his opinion, he 
added that "there is scarcely a race which has not 
contributed to make the Japanese nation, the 
Caucasian, the Mongolian, the Malay, and even, 
in the south, a slight tinge of Negrito from the 
islands of the Pacific." 

A race so diversified in its origin must naturally 
present characteristics, physical and mental, that 
are widely divergent. Whether or not we can 
identify and call by their names our forefathers, 
one by one, the mere fact of a great mixture ought 
to be sufficient to explain the extremes of tempera- 
ment, the wide range of selection, or what the 
biologists call the spontaneous variation, in one 
word plasticity, by virtue of which we adopt with 
ease foreign ideas and institutions, — all this in 
spite of the close homogeneity we have attained. 
It is not surprising that Japan has been dubbed 
topsy-turvydom. No less close an observer than 
Miss Scidmore calls it the land of paradoxes, in 
the same sense in which one of the latest and most 
careful students of American life, Mr. Muirhead, 
calls this country a "Land of Contrasts." I 
congratulate your country and mine on being 
paradoxical and inconsistent, for "consistency is, " 



Race and National CHaracteristics 91 

as Emerson says, "a hobgoblin of fools and little 
minds. " Where man is given a field for the free 
play of his mind and body, what he does to-day 
can but be inconsistent, in a sense, with what he 
did yesterday and with what he will do to-morrow. 
It is no discredit to a nation to have some speci- 
mens very different from the type ; on the contrary, 
it would argue a plentiful lack of wit, if a whole 
people were cast in a rigid mould of body and soul. 
The biogenetic law has been formulated that the 
individual organism, in its brief period of life, 
repeats the main stages of development through 
which the race has passed. Now, when a nation 
is not coterminous with a race — or, as the Germans 
have it, when the people do not form a strict 
Nationalstaat but only a Staatsnation — but em- 
braces individuals of originally different races, one 
cannot expect much uniformity in physique or 
intellect. Composite phylogenesis will naturally 
allow a wide scope for recapitulation. Generalisa- 
tion is risky; and I approach the subject of our 
race and national characteristics with fear lest 
I may not be just. Even as regards our somatic 
features, until a more exact measure of the average 
man, Uhomme moyen of the statisticians, is estab- 
lished, we shall have to content ourselves with a 
more or less indefinite type. 

Suppose we could obtain an average for the 
present generation, so unstable are human types 
— as Boas, Bolk, and other ethnographers have 
demonstrated, — that a few generations hence will 



92 THe Japanese Nation 

show a marked difference in Japanese anatomy. 
From the extensive mixture and the large dynamic 
possibilities of anatomical qualities, it has long 
been, and probably still is, no easy task to assign 
a definite place to the Japanese in the general 
scheme of ethnic classification. We used to be 
dumped into the heap of linguistic non-conformity, 
under the name Turanian . A German ethnographer 
divides mankind into day -folk and night-folk, and 
finding us not conformable to the requirements 
for admittance to either, prepares a special seat 
in the gallery of the twilight folk (Ddmmerungs- 
menschen). The Japanese, as they are, according 
to the carefully compiled table of Professor Amos 
W. Butler, belong to what he calls the Sibiric 
branch of the Asiatic race, and with the Koreans 
constitute the Japanic stock, quite apart from the 
Chinese, Mongolic, and the Tartaric. Perhaps 
this classification is the most concise. 

The most obvious morphological traits which 
first strike one in a foreigner are stature and pig- 
mentation. We are a small race — five feet two 
inches being the general average height for men 
and five feet for women. Although this is the 
average, there are many men who out measure six 
feet. In the case of wrestlers, a height of six feet 
is not considered exceptional. I may remark in 
this connection that the average in the north is 
decidedly higher than that in the south. As 
stature is not a statical character of a race, its 
increase is being constantly retarded or acceler- 



Race and National CHaracteristics 93 

ated, and though eugenics is not yet a fashion 
with us, there is shown a decided tendency to- 
wards increase of stature in the case of the grow- 
ing generation, especially among girls. Without 
doubt, this is due to gymnastic exercises in the 
school, and to the fact that the use of chairs and 
benches during school-hours permits fuller de- 
velopment of the limbs than does our national 
custom of sitting with the leg folded back from 
the knee. 

The limbs, both upper and lower, are small and 
delicately shaped. The legs are proportionately 
shorter in comparison with the length of the torso 
• — a feature certainly not beautiful. Then, too, 
they are generally more or less bowed, perhaps 
from the posture in sitting, or, can it be possible 
that it is a characteristic inherited from one of our 
ancestors, the Mongolians, of whom Dr. Hehn 
says that their legs became bent from constant 
riding on the steppes of Central Asia ! 

The arms, too, are comparatively short, and 
in spite of the fact that the most beautiful Bud- 
dhist statues have arms reaching to the knee, we 
speak rather disparagingly of long arms, meaning 
thereby a propensity to violate the eighth com- 
mandment. In this scant proportion of trimk and 
limbs as well as in brachycephaly, Havelock Ellis 
notes an approach to the infantile condition of the 
human species. Lest the more sensitive of my 
compatriots feel insulted by so belittling a state- 
ment as this, let it be added for their consolation 



94 THe Japanese Nation 

that the negroes and Australian savages are 
farthest removed from this infaftitile structure. 
If the hand, Hke the arm, is also small, the fingers 
are comparatively long and very often tapering. 
The delicacy of our hand explains the dexterity 
of our workmanship, a dexterity no doubt en- 
hanced by the constant use of the brush in writing 
and of chopsticks in eating. 

The pigmentation of the skin is typically light 
brown with a tinge of yellow, with variations from 
skins as fair as that of any Caucasian to those as 
dark as a red Indian. If the skin shows variation 
of hue, the hair is almost invariably black, and 
the chemical knowledge of our girls does not 
include the beautifying value of peroxide of hydro- 
gen. I may remark in passing that our albino 
looks like an ultra type of your blonde. Our hair 
is straight, though quite often wavy, albeit curls 
are not enjoyed by the possessor. If frizzly hair 
is not abhorred, it is for the same reason that 
nobody is afraid of a snake in Ireland. Should 
nature play a prank on Japanese girls by covering 
the head with a woolly texture, I am afraid it 
would swell the army of female suicides. The 
beard and moustache of the men are as a rule not 
heavy. The race as a whole is the reverse of 
hirsute. Occasionally one meets with people who 
are remarkable for their hairiness, and this quality 
is ascribed to Ainu blood. 

The head is relatively large, a fact that is attri- 
buted by some, though I am not prepared to 



Race and National CKaracteristics 95 

admit the statement, to the large consumption of 
fish. The shape of the head is brachiocephaHc, 
though dolicocephahc specimens are not at all rare. 
The eyes, as a rule black, though frequently light 
brown, are usually smaller than those of Europeans, 
and the smallness is made more conspicuous by 
puffy eyelids and veiled corners. The obliquity 
given to our eyes by artists, especially in popular 
colour prints, is decidedly exaggerated. A curious 
belief prevails among us that straight eyes and 
eyebrows, and, worse still, those that droop at 
the corners, are signs of weak character. 

The nasal index is of medium degree. Greek 
or Roman noses are not infrequently met with, 
nor is the Jewish type unfamiliar. Especially 
among the lower classes do we find very fiat 
and broad noses. As for the mouth and the lips, 
there is no one type that requires particular 
mention. The teeth are more often than not 
well-formed and sound, for which one may thank 
plain living, which foregoes excessive indulgence 
in sweets, ice-cream, and beefsteak. The cheek- 
bones have a decided tendency to be prominent, 
more conspicuously so among the peasantry. 

There are two facial types, the long and the 
round, or the oval and the "pudding-face," as it 
has been termed. The aristocracy have generally 
the longer type of face, and this is believed by good 
authorities attributable to Korean blood; whereas 
the "pudding-face" may have been inherited from 
the Malays or the Ainu. 



96 XHe Japanese Nation 

As regards our standard of beauty, naturally 
it is not in every respect uniform with the Greek 
or the Egyptian, or with the canons of the Renais- 
sance; but only in a very few points are the 
different canons at direct variance; that is to say, 
what we deem beautiful will never be positively 
ugly to you and vice versa. 

A woman, to be considered beautiful by us, need 
not be tall. Height may be divinely imposing, 
but not essential to human beauty. With us, 
about five feet would be considered the most 
desirable height, but if one must err, it is advisable 
to err by exceeding rather than by falling short 
of the mark. The figure should be slender without 
being bony, the waist long and the hips narrow. 
To secure grace, the body should be held slightly 
forward, not boldly erect. A very important 
feature is the neck, which should be long, white, 
slender, and gracefully curved. The hair should of 
course, be abundant, long, and perfectly straight, 
and while no deviation from black is tolerated, it 
should not be just black, but should be so glossy 
that it seems blue-black. The face should be oval 
and long, with a straight nose, which should also 
be high and narrow. As for the eyes, opinions are 
divided, one school of connoisseurs demanding 
that they should be large with a double line of the 
lid, while another school prefers that the eyes 
should be long and narrow and slightly slanting 
upwards at the outer corner. The colour of the 
eye should always be clear and deep brown; the 



Race and National CHaracteristics 97 

lashes thick, long, and curved ; the eyebrows black 
and distinct, their line long, and well arched; the 
mouth small ; lips thin, curved, and red ; teeth small, 
regular, and white. The ears must be evenly- 
curved, with no angle, and in size not too small, 
for pinched lobes look poverty stricken. Large 
ears, like those of the probable inhabitants of 
Mars, lately described by Professor Perrier, if 
not exactly beautiful, are believed to be lucky. 
As for the shape of the forehead, there are four 
types. By the one termed ''horned," we mean 
that in which the hair grows to a point in the 
middle of the forehead and high at the sides after 
the fashion called by the Germans Geheimraths- 
Ecke or the ''Councillor's corners." Then there 
are the square and the round types; but the fore- 
head most admired is high and narrow at the top, 
and obliquely slanting at the sides, suggesting the 
outline of our sacred mountain, Fuji. 

As for the complexion, it should be fair, with a 
tint of the rose on the cheek, only, in our parlance, 
we would call it cherry-hued. 

A figure combining all the points of the canon 
I have enumerated — and above all softened by 
eternally feminine modesty and gentleness of 
expression, and heightened by faultless refinement, 
and gracefulness of dress and manner — cannot fail 
to strike an alien critic as pleasant, agreeable and 
even charming ; and as his eye gets more and more 
accustomed to this type of beauty, he may pro- 
nounce it quite enchanting. 



98 THe Japanese Nation 

It has often been remarked by foreigners that 
there are far more beautiful women in Japan than 
handsome men, the latter being a rare article. 

From the general description of the physical 
characteristics of our race, you must have dis- 
covered, if you have not previously been aware of 
the fact, that the Japanese are by no means a 
beautiful race. To me, an ardent admirer of 
Greek civilisation, it has ever been a thorn in the 
flesh, because I have always believed that our 
people will in the future achieve the welding of two 
types of civilisation, as did the Hellenes in times 
past. When I expressed this, my disappointment, 
in the hearing of Dr. Rein, the well-known German 
geographer, he remarked ; — 

"I have travelled around the world and studied dif- 
ferent peoples, and I will tell you of two great disap- 
pointments. One was in Spain, where the people 
are unusually handsome, but where I found them 
so incongruously inferior intellectually. The other 
experience was in Japan, where in secluded moun- 
tain districts and among peasants living an al- 
most primitive life, and extremely unattractive in 
their appearance, I found surprising signs of intelli- 
gence ; so setting intelligence over ^gainst homeliness, 
I think you may be comforted." 

I flatter myself that the observations of such 
experienced travellers as Dr. Rein and Professor 
Hart, are more favorable than the judgment 
of a young Frenchman of twenty years, who 



Bwace and National CHaracteristics 



99 



concluded an account of his tour in Japan with 
this sweeping assertion — '' Le Japonnais n'es't pas 
intelligent.'" I know it is a flagrant breach of good 
form for me to say, "We are more clever than we 
look." Suppose for modesty's sake I reverse the 
proposition and say, "We look uglier than we" 
deserve," we revert to the same idea, and I may 
just plainly and honestly confess that we are well 
aware of our own strength and weakness, and are 
bent upon adding, as our phraseology expresses it, 
"to whatever is short in us from whatever is long 
in others," and "to polish our gems with stones 
quarried in other lands. " 

This brings me to the subject of the mental 
traits of our people, and in treating of them I 
shall first of all give a very brief account of our 
language. Philologically Japanese is a forlorn and 
solitary orphan, that can claim no relationship, 
either lateral or collateral, with any other lan- 
guages. Like poor little Mignon in Wilhelm 
Meister, its face is turned vaguely to the south 
(Malayasia?), yearning for the land where lemons 
bloom; but not a few scholars have traced the 
trails along which Japanese travelled from the foot 
of the Altai Mountains. A philological student 
went farther than that and tried to demonstrate 
the linguistic affinity between Japanese and Hit- 
tite; but in the present state of Hittite — ^perhaps 
it sounds more erudite to say Alarodian or Armen- 
oid — researches, we may just as well identify our 
language with that in which the sons of God made 



100 XKe Japanese Nation. 

love to the daughters of men, or even with that 
in which Adam wrote that wonderful diary so 
faithfully translated into English by Mark Twain ! 
Usually Japanese is put in the group of those 
agglutinative languages under the general name of 
Turanian. . But among them, as I have said, it 
stands by itself. Still, it is not to be denied that in 
the course of centuries it has appropriated words 
and expressions from Korean and Chinese, much 
as the English tongue has been enriched by the 
free use of Norman, Latin, Greek, and what not; 
and just as you pronounce words of alien origin in 
your own way, or attach new meaning and value to 
them, so have we also drawn heavily upon Chinese 
sources for a vocabulary, pronouncing monosyl- 
labic Chinese words as suits our orthography. 
Moreover, we borrowed Chinese letters, which are 
pictographs or ideographs, simply as signs to 
express the same ideas, but pronoimce them 
entirely differently. To illustrate, take the first 
syllable of my own name, Ni. In writing it, we 
use a certain Chinese character which every 
Chinese will pronounce shin, but which the Japan- 
ese will read ni. Linguistically there is no relation 
between shin and ni, however closely they may be 
related in the American vocabulary ! The Chinese 
character for man is written with two strokes {^), 
and we use it in the same sense, only it is pro- 
pronounced in Chinese lun, and in Japanese 
hito. This rather complicated relationship between 
Japanese and Chinese may be easily exemplified 



IVace and National CKaracteristics loi 

by the case of the Arabic or rather Indian num- 
erals. All the nations of Europe and now of the 
world have adopted the use of figures; but each 
nation pronounces numbers differently. To take 
another illustration, the Latin abbreviation * * i.e.' ' is 
freely used in all European languages ; but instead 
of pronouncing it ''id est," the English read it 
''that is," the French " c'est-a-dire, " the Ger- 
mans "das heisst," &c. This last abbreviation 
might serve as another good illustration. 

One great drawback in the use of Chinese 
characters is their unlimited number. A man of 
ordinary education must be acquainted with two 
or three thousand, and a dictionary in common use 
gives about forty to fifty thousand. There is no 
greater drain or strain on our school children than 
to learn by heart, to simply memorise, some 
thousands of these characters. 

I must add now that the Japanese, while they 
make free use of Chinese ideography, have in- 
vented an alphabet of their own. It is not an 
alphabet in the strict sense of the term, as it does 
not consist of letters on the phonetic system. It 
is properly a syllabary, and contains forty-seven 
syllables (including the five vowels which are 
purely phonetic) called i-ro-ha from the first 
three characters. It was the invention of an 
ingenious Buddhist priest of the ninth century. 

The forty-seven syllabic signs do not express all 
the sounds in our language, of which there are 
about seventy. By the use of diacritical marks, 



102 XHe Japanese Nation 

certain characters are made to represent other 
but allied sounds. In the synopsis of sixty-eight 
sounds there are a number which one greatly 
misses when one attempts to transcribe a European 
word. Entirely absent are the sounds of /, v, the 
English Ih, and the German ch. In the case of /, 
we force r to do its work, and as to v, its burden is 
borne by b; that is to say, only ears or lips accus- 
tomed to English can distinguish between lime 
and rime, van and ban. No very serious issues 
are involved in a schoolroom when a mistake is 
made between vile and bile, or between light and 
right; but the solemnity of a church service is 
dangerously threatened when hallowed is pro- 
nounced harrowed, or benison, venison. Far worse 
and unpardonable is it, of course, when the 
errors are carried into writing and v-a-l-e is spelt 
b-a-r-e; l-i-f-e, r-i-f-e; l-a-w, r-a-w; and l-o-v-e, 
r-o-b-e! 

With all of its deficiencies, disadvantages, and 
cumbersome syntax, our language can express, if 
sometimes somewhat awkwardly, all the ideas that 
the human mind anywhere has conceived or human 
heart has felt. We have already in our own tongue 
some of the works of Plato, Schopenhauer, Dar- 
win, and Carlyle. The Bible was translated long 
ago, and a new version has been attempted. Of 
poetry, Homer is partly translated and also sev- 
eral plays of Shakespeare, and quite recently 
Faust. Classics are the common property of the 
world. They are masterpieces in any tongue. 



Race and National CKaracteristics 103 

Japanese classics, too, may be gradually intro- 
duced into the Western world of letters. 

The same patriotism which makes us proud of 
our national literature, teaches us the necessity of 
learning foreign languages and of introducing re- 
forms in the written and spoken vernacular. A 
linguistic commission has been appointed by the 
Government ; language teaching has been improved 
in the schools; English has been the principal 
study in high schools; German is obligatory in 
colleges and universities ; transliteration societies — 
whose aim is to displace the Chinese ideographs by 
adopting Roman script — ^have been preaching the 
need of radical reform for the sake of the next 
generation. 

The spread of foreign languages and foreign 
literature is synonymous with the dissemination 
of European ideas. Can the Japanese long bear 
the weight of foreign thought? Can they really 
grasp Western sentiment, not only understand but 
enjoy it? 

The rich variety of races and of tongues that 
have come to be our heritage, explains without 
further demonstration our quickness in adopting 
foreign ideas and institutions, and in adapting 
ourselves to changing conditions of life. This 
process of selective accommodation has been called 
by various names — limitation, mimicry, love of 
novelties, fickleness. 

Hardly a book is written by an outsider without 
mention of Japanese imitativeness, — often quaH- 



I04 XHe Japanese Nation 

fied with such an adjective as bHnd, apish, childish, 
slavish. The same criticism is also expressed in 
another form, namely, lack of originality. 

This characterization of our mental trait cannot 
be gainsaid. If there were only two kinds of men, 
the imitative and the original, the Japanese, to- 
gether with the Greeks, Romans, and Normans, 
would certainly belong to the former. We bor- 
rowed (imitation is borrowing) Buddhism from 
India, Confucianism and some few other isms 
from China. Our much boasted arts are largely 
of continental origin. Our modern institutions 
have been learned chiefly from the West. 

We take pride in our imitative faculty. When 
in the Charter Oath with which our Emperor 
opened his auspicious reign, he plainly gave out 
an injunction to seek knowledge all over the world, 
he expressed the nation's willingness to follow the 
Biblical command — ''Prove all things and hold 
to that which is good. " 

Imitation is education, and education consists 
mainly in imitation. Whether it turns out to be 
apish mimicry or not, depends on the judicious 
choice of the model. Imitation is voluntary ad- 
justment persistently followed by the use of the 
criterion of fitness or of utility. It is essen- 
tially a power with which one subdues all things 
— even one's own self. An obscure recluse named 
Thomas, in the small village of Kempen, made it 
his life-work to imitate his Master and we all know 
what he attained in holiness and in literature. 



Race and National CHaracteristics 105 

Moreover, is it never possible to excel one's 
master? What of Raphael? For whether in re- 
ligions or ethics, in art or literature, though they 
all originally came from China and India, we 
have transformed them to our own taste. We 
have not only adopted but adapted them. As- 
similation of foreign ideas is impossible unless 
the receptive people are prepared for them. As 
Monsieur Tarde enunciates in one of his laws of 
imitation, international, collective imitation can 
proceed only from within outwards, otherwise it is 
only apish mimicry. Thus we console ourselves 
in the charge of imitativeness, accepting it, first, 
as a sign of our plastic, mobile youth ; secondly, in 
the hope of one day returning with interest the 
capital we are borrowing at present; thirdly, 
because we have made of it a deliberate and organ- 
ized instrument of great cultural and political 
efficiency. 

As for originality, what does it mean any way, 
in the face of Emerson's assertion that great genial 
power consists in not being original at all, but 
rather in being altogether receptive ? If originality 
means inventions and discoveries, we are achiev- 
ing something in these directions too. Our army 
is supplied with rifles of our own invention, and 
they have done some service ; our gun-powder was 
invented by our compatriot, Shimose, and it has 
not been altogether useless. To science, too, es- 
pecially in bacteriology, we have made a few con- 
tributions and expect to make more. Grant a 



io6 TTKe Japanese Nation 

little time to an imitative child, and he may some 
day amount to something. 

As for fickleness, which is closely connected with 
the imitative faculty — being a product of quick- 
ness of perception and alertness of action — this is 
a charge that can hardly be brought against a 
people who have lived under the same dynasty for 
twenty centuries. There is, however, some reason 
for taking as proofs of fickleness, the many experi- 
ments we have made in order to "prove all things. " 
When Luther Burbank takes a hundred new 
plants, cultivates them for a season, compares and 
examines them, and then throws away ninety- 
nine as unfit for his use, he shows intelligence, judg- 
ment, and decision, but not fickleness. No one 
thinks of calling a lady who is always dressed 
comme il faut, a fickle ape for being modish ; and 
yet, is not fashion every inch imitation? If so, 
the people among whom fashion changes oftenest 
must be the most fickle. This may be one of the 
simplest reasons why Americans and Japanese are 
like-minded. 

In seeking the best from abroad, the mental trait 
which has served us most has been quickness of 
perception, an intuitive recognition of the fit; for 
the Japanese imagination can sweep a wide (I 
dare not say a deep or lofty) range of space, and 
discern at a glance all that there is within its view. 
This is the vision of the artist, and the soul of 
woman. 

It seems to me that there is at the bottom of 



R.ace and National CKaracteristics 107 

Japanese character a feminine trait. In the up- 
bringing of a child by its parents, the mother 
plays a larger part by far than does the father — ■ 
much more so than in the West. As a child grows 
up, the intimacy between him and his father 
lessens and the relation between them assumes a 
respectful and polite distance. Not so with the 
mother. Between her and the child, intimacy 
never stiffens into formality ; she is ever the mother. 
The child's soul is moulded by her influence and 
her spirit, and it partakes of feminine qualities, 
both good and bad. The undercurrent of sadness, 
of kindliness, of tenderness, of pity, of compassion 
that is moving deep down in the Japanese soul 
comes from the mother's bosom, but there is 
another undercurrent equally deep and equally 
strong — of jealousy, envy, revenge, and vanity, 
which should be traced to the same source. These 
two currents, flowing from the two maternal breasts, 
feed the Japanese soul, and it would be quite 
feminine if the mother, in bringing up the child, 
did not keep before it for admiration manly deeds 
and virile virtues. The child whose soul is moulded 
in womanly qualities, is made to admire masculine 
strength. The result is: — in his temperament he 
remains feminine, but his character grows mascu- 
line. He feels like a woman and thinks like a man ; 
and when he acts, his action is like a woman's, 
when it is prompted by temperament, or is like a 
man's, when urged to it by the force of his 
character. 



io8 XHe Japanese Nation 

This will explain why sentiment obtains such a 
powerful dynamic inertia. Japanese heroism is 
more frequently actuated by sentiment than im- 
pelled by judgment and character. Where from a 
flash of noble emotion a hundred men may jump 
into fire, there will be only ten who will bear the 
slings and arrows of outraged fortune, and only 
one who will endure taunts and scorn for the sake 
of his principles. 

In a word, the Japanese is the child of his mother, 
trained in the school of his father. 

Modem psychology has confirmed the ancient 
belief that temperament is largely a matter of 
physiology. The great rapidity of response to 
external impression, and the quick transmission of 
nervous impulses among our people, can be ex- 
plained by neurology, and will in turn explain 
many a so-called race trait. "The quick sym- 
pathy, the wide outlook, the rapid accomplish- 
ment," have ever been the advantages which a 
composite race has enjoyed over one of simpler 
extraction. 

Susceptibility to outside influences is largely 
what makes the Japanese delight and excel in art ; 
for outside influences in their surroundings can- 
not fail to produce in the dullest a spark of love 
for the beautiful. The art instinct has become 
the subconscious property of the race. While 
Europeans admire nature and love to analyse 
its beauty, the Japanese, in their feminine soul, 
feel it and enjoy it tout ensemble. To us nature is 



Race and National CHaracteristics 109 

a complete whole in itself, and we make no attempt 
to force or even direct our mind above or beyond 
it. It distracts nature's child in his ecstacy to 
soar "from nature up to nature's God." Among 
Japanese poets the water-fowl is a favourite sub- 
ject of inspiration, and they feel and sing much as 
Bryant, with the omission of the last stanza. I 
am not comparing Eastern and Western minds 
with a critical or didactic intent, but only to show 
how tastes — tastes and not minds — differ. 

Professor Ladd, in his study of our national 
psychology, says that the Japanese temperament 
is that which Lotze has so happily called the 
"sentimental temperament," which characterises 
youth in all races, and is marked by great suscepti- 
bility to a variety of influences, with a tendency 
to a will, impulsive and alas ! liable to collapse. 

When I speak of the alertness with which our 
brains and nerves work, I do not say this alto- 
gether in praise of ourselves, for I am well aware of 
the shortcomings of a quick brain. I know its 
temptation to form hasty judgments, to become 
hypercritical, to be suspicious, to be affected by 
variations of temper. It is not now my purpose 
to justify or to criticise the race characteristics of 
my people. All that I attempt is candidly to 
present what I believe to be facts. Perhaps our 
alertness is most clearly evinced by this, that of 
all the foreign games that have been introduced into 
Japan, baseball has become the most popular sport. 
Not only are we quick to receive impressions 



no XHe Japanese Nation 

from without, but we are also keen in observing 
things and events. 

Before I leave the subject of our art and sensory 
acuity, I must make mention, however cursory, 
of our music. Years ago, a German musician of 
note made an interesting remark that island life 
is not conducive to voice or music. Whether it is 
upon the geographical location or upon a racial 
trait that we should lay the blame for the stunted 
growth of our music, I am in no position to say 
definitely. It is the branch of art which has 
developed least in the East. It has been culti- 
vated assiduously by the Court for ceremony, by 
religion for rite, by the aristocracy for festivity, 
and by the populace for amusement. In the 
Court and the Shinto shrine, music is from the 
very nature of its object, open to little change, 
and they are, in a peculiar sense, its conservatory. 
But in the case of the aristocracy and more espe- 
cially in the sphere of the popular ballads, dances, 
and recitals, one might have expected more prog- 
ress. As a matter of fact, Japanese music was 
confined to a few stringed instruments and flutes 
and drums of all kinds — most of them of ancient 
Chinese origin. The typical Japanese instrument, 
invented in the seventeenth century, is the thir- 
teen stringed koto, a sort of lyre, which is learned 
by every well-bred young lady; but the more 
plebeian and popular samisen, a banjo introduced 
from Manila, is a ubiquitous instrument of three 
strings, which produces a sound characterised by 



R.ace and National CKaracteristics ill 

Mr. Piggott as "a mixture between a thrumming 
and a tinkling," to be called " thrinkling. " The 
fiddle, originally introduced from India, fills by- 
no means the same position that it does in Europe, 
neither does the biwa, a kind of guitar, which was 
one of the earliest instruments that came into 
Japan, in the tenth century, and which has been 
the mother of several other instruments. 

As far as the varieties of musical instruments 
are concerned, our people had — say in the fifteenth, 
or perhaps as late as the eighteenth century — 
an assortment very nearly as great as that of the 
Europeans. I wonder — and this is only a crude 
surmise of mine — whether the legal measure which 
made the teaching of music a monopoly, together 
with a few other social and economic advantages, 
of the blind (a piece of protective legislation for 
this unfortunate class), did not in the end have a 
disastrous effect on the progress of music, exclud- 
ing, as it did, the possibility of writing music. 
Whenever acquired talent cannot be committed 
to writing, however partially and poorly, it is 
practically lost to future generations, and growth 
is arrested. 

As to music proper, I confess my utter ignorance 
on the subject. All I can do is to repeat from the 
opinions of experts that our scale consists of only 
five notes of the harmonic minor scale, the fourth 
and seventh being wanting. What lends an out- 
landish character to our music is the introduction 
of a semi-tone above the tonic. Moreover, there is 



112 THe Japanese Nation 

very little harmony. The whole effect of our 
music is, therefore, not at all pleasing to foreign 
ears, and the Japanese themselves are far from 
professing themselves a musical people. 

Has the Japanese then no music in himself? Is 
he not "moved with concord of sweet sounds?" 
Is he not, then, "fit for treasons, stratagems, and 
spoils, " and are "the motions of his spirit dull as 
night and his affections dark as Erebus"? 

Whatever may be implied in this famous aphor- 
ism, the Oriental moralists from Confucius down 
have always insisted upon "the concord of sweet 
sounds" as subsidiary and subservient to the 
music in one's own self, the harmony of all one's 
thoughts and emotions with the rhythmic beat of 
the heart. If harmony, in the narrower technical 
sense, was but meagrely developed in our music, 
harmony of sounds on a large scale was not passed 
unnoticed. The frogs that croak in the pool, the 
birds warbling among the swaying boughs, the 
insects humming in the dewy grass, the zephyr 
blowing through groves of pine, never failed to 
catch a listening ear, and were translated into 
articulate songs. 

Our poetical composition proper, the uta, con- 
sists of only thirty-one syllables. Our long poem 
is an alternating repetition of long and short lines 
— seven and five syllables each, or sometimes 
reversed in the order of five and seven. There is 
even a shorter form of versification, called haiku, 
consisting of but seventeen syllables. If the uta 



R.ace and National CHaracteristics 113 

proper savours of aristocratic refinement, the 
haiku is the more plebeian and popular form of 
poetic expression. Both usually take for their 
theme the simplest natural object and only hint 
at the emotions stirred by it. 

These pithy, short lines suggest more thought 
than they express. They leave so much unsaid. 
The Japanese do not accept the definition usually 
credited to Talleyrand but previously used by 
Goldsmith,^ who himself derived it from Dr. 
Young, that ''speech is a means of concealing 
thought"; but I admit that they do not wholly 
comply with the usual English definition that it 
"is a means of expressing thought"; for among us 
the highest use of speech is to evoke thought. 
Ars est celare artem — "True art is to conceal art" : 
to which one ought to add — "and explicitly or 
implicitly to reveal truth." In our drama, for 
instance, a Hamlet would not take the trouble 
to make a long soliloquy, but would let his audi- 
ence have a glimpse of his soul struggle by a few 
suggestive phrases. 

A suspicion may have arisen in your mind that 
speech and language may not have developed 
sufficiently among us to express deepest thoughts 
and emotions. I have already stated that some 
of the greatest works in European languages have 
been translated into our tongue. 

^ Goldsmith's Essay on the Use of Language: ". . . the true 
use of speech is not so much to express our wants as to conceal 
them." 



114 THe Japanese Nation 

Yet, I admit, though with reluctance, that our 
thought-world — our word-world — suffers from 
paucity of great ideas. I have said in a former 
lecture that our leading ideas are importations — 
Buddhism from India, Confucianism from China. 
So it is with literature and philosophy. I do not 
think that we are of the stuff of which great meta- 
physicians and philosophers are made. Our minds 
are too practical and terrestrial. As for myself — ■ 
and my patriotic countrymen will not thank me 
for my plain speaking — I doubt very much whether 
we shall make any notable contributions to world- 
literature in the next generation or two ; but in the 
domain, the ever widening domain, of scientific 
researches and attainments, we may stand on 
equal terms with the most advanced peoples of 
the world. 

As he is his mother^s son, though disciplined by 
his father, so is the Japanese an Oriental, fortified 
in sentiment with the conviction of an Occidental. 
Poetry lurks within him to burst forth when feeling 
is stirred; but prose controls his daily round of 
care. He attends to the menial chores of the 
shrines sacred to the Muses. Have you seen those 
quiescent volcanoes that abound in the land, with 
fire hidden in their bosom; the peasants tilling 
the terraces and the very crater itself, to raise 
kitchen vegetables? How unbecoming and incon- 
gruous! If in a museum of folk-psychology, the 
different races were arranged in two opposing 
groups, of which one is theoretical, religious, emo- 



Race and National CHaracteristics 115 

tional, communistic, and the other practical, scien- 
tific, intellectual, individual, and if the two groups 
were respectively labelled Eastern and Western, 
the Japanese should be classed with the latter, 
perhaps on the same shelf with the Italians and 
Austrians. 

I believe that our plasticity is such that we can 
understand the West as we do the East, and can 
sympathise with both. Emotionally and tradi- 
tionally allied to the latter, by intelligence and 
conviction we belong to the former. Now and 
then we hear of anti-foreign feelings; but if their 
sight and sound deceive me not, they are simply a 
phase of contra-imitation, which always accom- 
panies social transformation. 

The . occidentalisation of Japan is a process 
psychological and ethological, as well as social and 
political. And as Monsieur Tarde has pointed out, 
the permeation of society by foreign ideas works 
from the upper to the lower classes. Before com- 
munity of sentiment can become general between 
the East and the West, the intellectual leaders 
must own to a common brotherhood. The light of 
science and of advanced ideas, as it rises above the 
dim horizon, will first gild the highest peaks, and 
only as it illumines the plains, will the toilers in the 
fields recognise each other face to face. If the full 
dawn has not yet enlightened our peasant and your 
labourer, it behooves us to whom the early beams 
of the morning have brought clearer vision, to open 
the way for better understanding and a closer bond. 



CHAPTER V 

RELIGIOUS BELIEFS 

IN view of the endless field of inquiry which the 
varying and conflicting definitions of religion 
will open, I shall start in the present lecture with 
my own rough notions of religion, which are put 
forth not for general acceptance, but solely to 
delimit the sphere of my discourse. 

What man believes concerning his existence 
beyond this life, be it in the future or in the past, 
constitutes his faith, and what he does as corolla- 
ries of his faith — especially in the act of worship 
— constitutes his religion. If his belief is contra- 
dicted by positive science, it is called supersti- 
tion. A man may have some faith, with which, 
however, he may mix more superstition. Rarely 
do we meet one who is wholly and only supersti- 
tious, for his superstition is usually a more or less 
logical inference of his faith. Superstitions do not 
stand on their own feet, for they have no feet of 
their own; hence, in order to stand at all, they 
must borrow the pedestal of faith. And the very 
reason why superstitions are so general and hard 

Ii6 



Reli^iovis Beliefs 117 

to fight is, because they are not "a lie which is all 
a lie" but ''a lie which is part a truth." 1 have 
omitted from my concept of religion the belief in 
an infinite God, or in divine revelation, — doctrines 
usually considered to be necessary postulates of a 
religious faith. 

In the sense I have above indicated, the Japanese 
are by nature a highly religious people. 

In a previous lecture, I dilated at some length on 
the artistic temperament of our people. The 
sense of beauty extended horizontally generates 
art, and the same sense projected upwards paints 
and carves a religion. When I speak of my people 
as deeply imbued with a religious sentiment, please 
note that I lay particular stress on the term senti- 
ment. They are sentimental and artistic, and 
among their higher sentiments and elevated tastes 
are a religious taste and sentiment. This is far 
from saying that they are so swayed by religion 
that their very sentiments and tastes are governed 
by it. Our zeal will not manifest itself in the same 
manner as it does among the Jews and the Span- 
iards, the Hindus or the Arabs. We are too matter- 
of-fact in our every-day life to become zealots; 
but should persecutions arise, martyrdom would 
be hailed in heroism rather than in faith, and death 
courted as an honourable exit from this life rather 
than as an entrance to the next. 

Being largely of the nature of sentiment, the 
creed of the Japanese is incapable of concise state- 
ment. There are religions, more properly religious 



ii8 TKe Japanese Nation 

systems, whose articles of faith are reduced to 
clear-cut phrases in black and white, on vellum 
and bound with gilt-edge, still leaving ample room 
for divines to dispute about them. Can any arti- 
cles of faith make up a religion? Certainly a cut- 
and-dried theology is not faith. Are there not in 
the very nature of a religious faith mystery and 
vagueness, or is this only so in the primitive forms 
of belie£? 

The Japanese conception of religion is clear in 
spots, but generally vague. It begins in instinct, 
gains volume by sentiment, and grows in strength 
by emotion. "First guessed by faint auroral 
flushes sent along the wavering vista of his dream, '' 
the Japanese draws nearer to his theme of the 
hereafter, not by power of intellect but by intensi- 
fying his emotions and calling for aid upon his 
personal sensibilities. The race feels deep down 
in its consciousness that sublunary existence is not 
the whole of life. Indeed, this belief is so in- 
grained in us that it has become a mental habit 
which asks for no demonstration — a subconscious 
faith which no materialism can destroy. 

It is true we have failed to formulate the immor- 
tality of the soul in terms of philosophy or science. 
Nevertheless, instinctively do we believe — be it 
only in that impersonal way which in the Buddhist 
philosophy is known as Karma — that the dead 
are alive, and that the living are not mere dust 
destined to return to dust; but because we have 
not elucidated this faith into a rigid doctrine, we 



Religious Beliefs 119 

are said to be irreligious, and we ourselves not 
only admit the charge, but the so-called advanced 
thinkers among us rather pride themselves upon 
it, — whence the impression that agnosticism is the 
prevailing attitude of the educated Japanese mind. 
Ask the most advanced ''agnostic" among us if he 
entertains no belief in a future life. His character- 
istic reply will be, "I do not know, " by which he 
means, ''I cannot prove it." But watch him as 
he stands by his parents' tomb, or as he throws the 
clod into the grave at the funeral of his friend; 
his inborn faith crops out in words or deeds, attest- 
ing that in the night ''the stars shine through his 
cypress- trees," and that he "looks to see the break- 
ing day across the mournful marbles play. " The 
most scientific will not dream of peeping into the 
tomb of his father or " botanising upon his mother's 
grave." Nor is it only in hours of sorrow that 
his faith gleams through the darkness. At times 
of rejoicing his mind fondly turns to the absent 
from earth, and hears their glad response to his 
joy. He feels his life bound to all life, past, 
present, or future. He believes as Savage did, that 
he had his birth when the stars were bom in the 
dim asons of the past, and that his cradle was 
rocked by cosmic forces. 

Of the many religious systems which either 
sprouted in Japanese soil or were transplanted 
therein, three attained national importance. These 
are Shinto, Buddhism, and, later, Christianity. I 
exclude Confucianism from the list of religions, 



I20 THe Japanese Nation 

since it is silent on the question of life beyond this 
world. As to Taoism, it found only a very small 
following. Zoroaster and Mohammed found none. 

In the present lecture, I shall occupy myself 
mainly — almost exclusively — ^with Shinto; first, 
because it is a cult strictly native to the race, and 
secondly, because it is so little known outside of 
Japan. As for Buddhism, I have had occasion to 
speak of its introduction and progress in Japan, 
and of its great social and political importance. 
As a religious system it transcends the boundaries 
of Japan, and I take it for granted that you are 
familiar with its general features; therefore I 
shall only call your attention to one or two phases 
of its doctrines which are of special interest to 
Westerners. 

Of Christianity, too, I have had occasion to 
speak; — ^how it was first introduced and how it 
was practically eradicated. Between Christianity 
as propagated by the immediate followers of 
Xavier, and Christianity as taught anew by 
Protestant missionaries, there is no historical con- 
tinuity in our land. Even at present Christianity 
is only tolerated in Japan, and not publicly recog- 
nised as are Shinto and Buddhism. The Imperial 
Constitution, however, secures religious freedom 
to all, and no believer in any religion is molested 
in the observance of his faith. At the present 
time, while I am giving these lectures in America, 
there is a significant project afloat at home. The 
Vice-minister of Home Affairs, by conviction a 



Reli^iovis Beliefs 121 

faithful Buddhist, and a man of large heart and of 
wide outlook, has launched the idea — which he 
wishes to materialise into a legal or administrative 
measure — of bestowing upon Christianity govern- 
ment recognition, and, by thus elevating its 
worldly status, to win for it an equal place in 
the respect of the nation. 

The importance of Shinto is due primarily to 
the fact that it is in its essence strictly indigenous, 
and that it comprehends more than a religious 
faith, as this is usually understood. Shinto may 
be called a compact bundle of the primitive in- 
stincts of our race. All religion is conservative; 
but in the case of Shinto, this loyalty to the past 
has more truly than in the religious life of ancient 
Rome, so philosophically depicted by Mr. Jesse 
B. Carter, "developed from the status of an ac- 
cidental attribute into that of an essential quality, 
and became by degrees almost the sum-total of 
religion." Koku-fu, the old custom of the land, 
has as much power as the mos majorum among 
the Romans, and Shinto is the most faithful 
guardian and guard of our ancient traditions, 
keeping intact even their defunct doctrines and 
effete usages — not always in the cold scientific 
spirit of preservation, but often enough in reac- 
tionary zeal against modern progress. 

Another reason for the importance of Shinto lies 
in the fact of its being the religion of the reigning 
house. Its tenets run through all the chief rites 
and rituals of the Court. It was, indeed, in 



122 THe Japanese Nation 

earliest times the act of government itself. To 
govern and to worship are etymologically synony- 
mous — Matsurigoto meaning either. Numerically, 
too, Shinto assumes vast importance, not that it 
has a large following, for it is impossible to count 
the number of its adherents, but because of some 
sixteen thousand shrines, great and small, national 
and local, and because of some fifteen thousand 
ministrants distributed throughout the country 
under a dozen or more sects. 

The name Shinto, literally the Way of the Gods, 
or the divine doctrine, is in its derivation Chinese, 
and was first applied in Japan, in an historical 
compilation of 720 A.D., to the native cult, in 
contradistinction to Buddhism and Confucianism ; 
but the term itself is of a much older date. In the 
broad sense of the ways of heaven or of nature, 
or in its more restricted moral significance of the 
righteous path, or in the philosophical meaning of a 
divine dispensation, it was used by Confucius him- 
self thirteen centuries before its adoption amongst 
us. Prior to the introduction of this appellation, 
our simple faith was known as Kami- N agar a, a 
word which defies exact translation, since the first 
of the component terms, Kami, commonly ren- 
dered god or deity, fails to convey the meaning 
originally attached to it; and as to the second 
term, Nagara, which literally consists of naku and 
aru, ''to be and not to be," and which can be 
approximately rendered ''being like gods" or 
''being in a state of godhood, " implies the original 



Religioxis Beliefs 123 

innocence of man. For though human Hfe is 
generally conceived as a struggle between the 
dual natures of good and evil, between "the good 
which I would and which I do not, and the evil 
which I would not and which I practise," as Saint 
Paul complained, godlike {Kami-Nagara) par- 
takers of the divine nature differ from ordinary 
mortals in that they cannot forsake the path of 
wisdom and righteousness as long as they keep 
true to their own nature. To borrow the ancient 
Japanese words, men and women are hiko and 
hime, — literally, sons and daughters of light. The 
focus of the Shinto faith lies in the doctrine of 
Kami. This term has no exact equivalent in Eng- 
lish. As far as I can translate it, it lies between 
super-man and superhuman being. Every crea- 
ture, at the instant of departure from this life, is 
freed from the trammels which the flesh imposes 
upon the spirit, and thereupon attains an existence 
which is superior to that of the ordinary mortal, 
but which is still not quite divine. If I do not 
err, Kami is the quintessence of all being — animate 
or inanimate, as I shall have repeated occasion to 
testify. Shinto is hylozoism or rather panpsy- 
chism, Kami, being the psyche, which manifests 
itself in every form and force of nature. 

Shinto has no sympathy with the doctrine of 
original sin and, therefore, with the fall of man. 
It has implicit faith in the innate purity of the 
human soul. Like George Fox, it believes in the 
existence of the inner light, the divine seed, but 



124 XHe Japanese Nation 

not going farther or deeper, it stops where Mat- 
thew Arnold stops, by teaching that sweetness and 
light are not only a normal but an ideal condition 
to strive after. In fact, Shinto did not teach us 
to pray for forgiveness of sins, but for the sweet 
things of this life, for happiness but not for blessed- 
ness. The Hebrew conception of sin hardly exists. 
Evil is identified with defilement, something for- 
eign to the soul; for as to the soul itself, it cannot 
partake of evil. Light cannot lose its native 
purity, however far it may be deflected in its 
course by an opaque barrier or refracted by a 
prism ; but its real nature remains unchanged, in- 
tact. So with the children of the gods — remind- 
ing us of the words of St. John: "Whoever is 
begotten of God, doeth no sin, because his seed 
abideth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is 
begotten of God." 

Emphasise as best he may the diviner element 
in our nature, the most consistent Shintoist can- 
not be blind to its weaker side, and the deeper he 
probes into his own heart, the clearer grows his dis- 
covery how far short of godlike purity his thought 
and practice fall. Like the old Stoic, he may men- 
tally deny the existence of sin, but from personal 
experience he is forced to admit its reality. He 
may refuse to dub it a sin ; he may call it an im- 
purity. Whatever the nomenclature, he cannot 
escape the uncomfortable feeling of a child who has 
told a story. As there is no third party, — say a 
wrathful god to propitiate, or a redeemer to atone. 



Religiovis Beliefs 125 

and as the evil in his mind is only an accident, so 
to speak, — the problem which lies before him is 
easy of solution. He can of his own accord blow it 
off (harai) like dust, or wash it off (misogi) like a 
stain, and regain purity. A hymn says: 

'*Pure be heaven, 
Pure be earth, 
Pure be within, without. 
And the six roots." 

By the six roots sire meant the five organs of sense 
and the heart as the organ of feeling. A religion 
which takes such slight cognisance of the gravity 
of evil and sin, and which accepts the facts of 
mortal life as divinely ordered, can easily dispense 
with any elaborate theology or a stringent moral 
code. A groaning Hebraism is out of the question, 
but a smiling Hellenism is in place. There is self- 
contentment in Shinto. How can it be otherwise 
when death itself is conceived of as deification, 
and when nature- — all its destructive forces not 
excluded — is thought to be working for us? 

That the dead are alive somehow and some- 
where, is the strongest faith of our people, and as 
long as science does not prove such a belief to be 
contrary to its discoveries and teachings, ancestor- 
worship is not to be deemed a superstition. 
Illatively of this belief, we revere and venerate 
their memory. We do not carve their images as 
idols; we do not carry their remains as charms. 
Their words of wisdom we hoard in the secret 



126 XHe Japanese Nation 

chambers of our heart ; and their good deeds done 
in the body we bear in reverent remembrance. 
MaeterHnck is teaching this skeptical generation 
that the dead are not gone as long as we think of 
them, and that as oft as we remember them, they 
rise from their graves. Our custom of observing 
the anniversaries of the day upon which our dead 
left us, instead of their birthdays, should meet 
with approval from the Belgian idealist. 

There are a few phases of our ancestor- worship 
the significance of which is little regarded by the 
West. Christian Europe would be scandalised 
to be told that its religion is ancestor- worship, 
and yet between Christianity and the cult of 
forebears, there is a strong link of human interest, 
which fondly traces one's existence to his parents 
and thence again to their progenitors, and so leads 
ever upward, ascending from generation to genera- 
tion, only to find rest in accepting as its ultimate 
source the Ancient of Days. 

I am far from identifying the Shinto with the 
Christian or Jewish faith, but the idea of ancestor- 
worship, if consistently practised, will approach 
the Christian doctrine of immortality, and the 
Jewish conception of monotheism. Even if Shinto 
fails to grasp the belief in a spiritual Father, it can 
be seen what a force it must have accumulated by 
constant recurrence to the dead and the past. To 
quote Schiller, — "Didst thou wish for an immor- 
tal life? Live in the Whole! And if thou stay'st 
long in it, it will stay." With the thought oft 



Religio\is Beliefs 127 

intent upon those who preceded us and Hving with 
them in long-past years, one attains something of 
past eternity and of previous existence — and so, 
dwelHng in contemplation or veneration of the 
''Whole of existence," he comes to a foretaste 
of future immortality. 

When Christ, wishing to lay stress on their duty 
to the living, enjoined His disciples to ''Let the 
dead bury their dead, " He did not intend to dis- 
courage a reverence for ancestors, for in His eyes 
there could be no dead to be buried. 

Our veneration of the dead (whatever its origin) 
is something far removed from the primitive fear 
of ghosts. Neither is it a peculiar weakness of the 
East; for the West shares the same feeling, and 
however feeble an influence at present, you must 
admit that the ideal of Anglo-Saxon knighthood, 
Sir Galahad, the purest character in English litera- 
ture, is represented as having his thought con- 
stantly fixed on his ancestor and the spirit of 
Joseph of Arimathea as ever guarding and guiding 
him. 

There stands on the Kudan Hill in Tokyo a 
shrine dedicated to the memory of those who have 
died for the country. The living have conse- 
crated this ground to the dead. Here are inscribed 
on sacred rolls the names of those who fell on the 
battle-field, — ^from the humblest foot-soldier to the 
greatest commander. Here they are, as it were, 
canonised, deified. They are immortalised and ele- 
vated in the holy of holies of the nation's memory. 



128 THe Japanese Nation 

Some of you may have seen and heard, as I have 
seen and heard, a widow leading her child there 
and reverentially instructing it that its father's 
spirit surely, though invisibly, dwells in this 
place. More than this! — I have heard her say, 
*' Look well ! He is there. Do you not see him? " 

We may characterise Shinto as a religion of sug- 
gestion by introspection. Instead of formulating 
a creed, it leaves to each worshipper the formulation 
of his own creed and so has this advantage, that 
no obstacle is placed in the way of individual inter- 
pretation. From the field that lies before him, 
limitless and unlimited, each may cull whatever 
flower his fancy loves and carry it in his bosom; 
hence there is no danger of believing by proxy. 

Shinto only furnishes a condition for worship, and 
displays extraordinary simplicity in the furnishings 
of its shrines. These are the plainest of wooden 
structures, of an ancient form of architecture, 
unpainted and undecorated, usually in the shade of 
cryptomeria groves — groves which as Bryant sings 
**were God's first temples." The silent trees at 
once whisper of the crowding millenniums that 
have flown in mutest throng. The worshipper feels 
his life but a moment in the endless horologue of 
the universe, but not the less an integral part of 
the vast scheme, which without him would be in- 
complete. A real Shintoist should feel at once 
his greatness and his littleness, that he is but a 
fleeting shadow and yet not the less a god. 

Nothing is more striking or more disappointing 



Religious Beliefs 129 

to the tourist in Japan than to visit the great 
temple at Yamada in Ise, the temple of the sun- 
goddess, who is reputed to be the ancestress of 
our royal family. As an American tourist once 
said: "There is nothing to see in Yamada, and 
what there is to see, is not to be seen." It may 
be interesting in this connection to cite an English 
authority on the history of Greek art, who told me 
that without a visit to the court of a Shinto shrine 
one cannot clearly understand an ancient Greek 
temple-ground. 

Teaching the worshipper not to rely upon visible 
objects of worship, but to place himself in surround- 
ings conducive to contemplation, an ancient Shinto 
oracle says, ''When the sky is clear and the wind 
hums in the fir trees, 't is the heart of a god who 
thus reveals himself." This sounds like pan- 
en theism, yet so far removed is it from panenthe- 
ism that it can at best be called pantheism. An 
old Buddhist poet put into verse the sentiment 
aroused by a visit to Ise: 

** I know not who dwelleth in these precincts, 
But my eyes overfiow with tears of gratitude." 

As you enter a shrine, you see scarcely any in- 
strument of worship, a mirror being the chief object 
to attract notice. ' ' Behold thy image," the oracle 
seems to whisper as you stand before the shrine, 
*' Behold thy own image as reflected in the mirror, 
and know for thyself how it fares with thee!" 



130 XHe Japanese Nation 

Thus left to contemplate nature and to refect 
upon self, one comes to a monistic conception of 
the universe and of life. "There are moments 
in life," says Schiller, "when we feel like pressing 
to our bosom every stone, every far-off distant 
star, every worm, and every conceivable higher 
spirit, — to embrace the entire universe like our 
loved one. . . . Then does the whole creation 
melt into a personality.'* 

In this exalted, spiritual mood, Schiller is a 
Shintoist at his best; or, with a fifteenth century 
countryman of his, Nicholas of Cusa, he would 
find in all forms of existence "a divine grain of 
seed which carries within it the original patterns 
of all things." Shintoists believe with Nicholas 
that in all that is, God {Kami) is omnipresent; 
but I doubt whether they could follow him in the 
next assertion, "All that is, is in God. " I doubt, 
indeed, whether they could even say, "All that 
is, is God." In the cosmogonic myth of Shinto, 
which I casually mentioned when speaking of the 
early times of our history, you must have noticed 
that it owns no creator — ^no creatio ex nihilo; for 
whatever was produced, be it an island or a plant, 
a worm or a star, it was generated. All things are 
begotten of gods, not made. The world and all 
therein is, partakes, therefore, of the same nature 
as the procreator. Not only the flower but the 
crannied wall, not only the sea but its denizens, 
and the pebbles on its beach, are our brothers 
and sisters, and therefore equally Kami. In this 



Religious Beliefs 131 

hylopathic plan, little distinction is recognised 
between natura naturata and natura naturens. 
Shinto is a religion without a founder, without 
theology, and without scriptures. The absence of 
the first deprives it of that ardent, personal affec- 
tion and fidelity found in the great religions, 
though the deficiency is made up in a measure, as 
in Greek and Roman mythologies, by distributing 
reverence among a host of deities and by includ- 
ing our own ancestors among them. We speak of 
the eighty myriad deities of the Shinto pantheon, 
and they range from the most insignificant gods 
whom pious spinsters respect as the spirits of 
sewing-needles or those to whom kitchen maids do 
homage as residing in the furnace, up to those that 
roar in thunder or shine in lightning or ride upon 
the whirlwind; from those who make love in the 
budding flower or in the tender evening star, up 
to those who illumine the world in the moon and 
the sun. Thus Shinto is the most polytheistic of 
polytheisms and its popular pantheon is filled with 
gods that dwell in or preside over every object and 
phenomenon of which you can think, and is farther 
replenished by additions of apotheosised men. 
The Shinto heaven is peopled with all the personi- 
fied forces of nature ; the Shinto shrine is a reposi- 
tory of every sacred memory. A remarkable 
feature of these Kami is that only a few of them 
have any definite shape ascribed to them. I have 
spoken above of the god of the hearth; but it 
(the sex being uncertain, I use the neuter pro- 



132 XKe Japanese Nation 

noun) is possessed of no form, animate or inani- 
mate, animal or anthropomorphic. The hearth 
itself is not for one moment considered divine. It 
is not a fetich. 0-Kamado-san, like Vesta, repre- 
sents the power and action of the fireplace. The 
god's existence is made manifest only through what 
the hearth does. It is a power but not a thing, any- 
more than is the thing "hearth" the power "god." 

The absence of theology deprives Shinto of any 
discussion concerning the hypostasis of belief. It 
gives no clue to a rational interpretation of the 
universe. 

The absence of scriptures deprives Shinto of 
final authority regarding ethical mandates. In a 
meagre way compensation is made for this by 
myths, legends, and tales, not always instinct 
with a moral — very often gross and sometimes 
more obscene than the baldest stories of the 
Old Testament. 

For want of a creed its votaries have no m.oral 
code to follow. Yet, as I said at the beginning of 
the present lecture, in the definition of religion, a 
faith does not deserve the name of religion unless 
it manifests itself in conduct conformable to that 
faith, and particularly in the act of worship. In 
the case of Shinto, minute rites and ritual are 
dictated, the chief burden of which is purification 
by one means or another. 

Concerning the daily conduct of private indi- 
viduals little is taught. Scarcely any form of 
prayer is prescribed. In fact, even upon the 



Religioxis Beliefs 133 

occasion of festivals, so-called prayers (norito) 
contain little supplication, consisting largely of 
adoration and thanksgiving. Very rightly has Mr. 
Aston called Shinto a religion of gratitude and 
love. If supplication is made, it is not for our 
own daily bread, but for an abundant harvest for 
the nation, or, if it is for forgiveness of trespasses, 
it is not for our individual wrong-doing, but for 
the sins of the people. Thus without a visible 
communion of saints, the consciousness of national 
coherence is ever kept prominent. As to the 
individual, the sum and substance of moral injunc- 
tion amount to this : "Be pure in heart and body ! ' ' 
In other words, be true and genuine in heart, and 
clean in body. Harbour no thought of evil and 
thou art a god, and keep thy body as a temple 
meet for him to dwell in. Says a famous poem 
of the saintly Michizane : 

" The god blesseth 
Not him who prayeth, 
But him whose heart strayeth 
Not from the way of MakotoJ^ 

The peculiarly Japanese term Makoto, usually 
translated *' truth" or ''faithfulness," covers the 
whole ground or the very essence of morals, liter- 
ally meaning the thing itself, reminding one of the 
Kantian das Ding an sich. Makoto signifies real- 
ity or truth, which implies that the real is the true 
and the true is the real, a proposition almost 
Hegelian. 



134 XHe Japanese Nation 

The subjectivity of Shinto morality finds fre- 
quent expression in the oracles of many gods, for 
instance, the god of Fujiyama enjoins upon his 
worshippers the following : 

** Ye men of mine shun desire. If you shun desire 
you will ascend to a level with the gods. Every little 
yielding to anxiety is a step away from the natural 
heart of man. If one leaves the natural heart of man 
he becomes a beast. That men should be made so, 
is to me intolerable pain and unending sorrow."^ 

Here is another oracle, given in a dream to an 
emperor: — **It is the upright heart of all men 
which is identical with the highest of the high and 
therefore the god of gods. There is no room in 
heaven and earth for the false and crooked per- 
son."^ 

Still another: — ''If we keep unperverted the 
human heart, which is like unto heaven and 
received from earth, that is God. The gods have 
their abode in the heart. "^ 

As long as we shut our eyes by deliberate exer- 
cise of will or by self-deception to that persistent 
fact of evil so stubbornly present with us, the 
complete identification of human nature with 
divine may be accepted as indisputable, and preg- 
nant with highest moral consequences. With 
Goethe, a Shintoist could say, ''The more thou 
feelest to be a man, the nearer thou art to the 
gods." 

' These translations are from Mr. Aston's Shinto, 



Religio\is Beliefs 135 

But herein lies the weakness inherent in Shinto. 
If the real and the true are identified or, at least, 
convertible terms, there is no room left for ideals. 
Whatever is, is true, and therefore right. A life, 
however gross, if only real, is a true life, and there 
is in it no condemnation. So Shinto could not 
escape the weakness common to all forms of 
naturalism, and nowhere is this more manifest, to 
my mind, than in its alliance with principalities 
and powers that be. Because it glorifies the real, 
it deifies mortals, and by so doing, helps to excuse 
and even to exalt their frailties. 

Moses, lifted high above his people and invested 
with authority almost divine, still points above and 
warns them to refrain from idolatry. If we turn 
from the grim height of Sinai and the desert of 
Arabia, to the City of the Seven Hills on the smil- 
ing banks of the Tiber, we see Augustus, the sole 
lord of the world, making himself a divine object 
for supreme reverence. Then, later on in history, 
we come across another similar contrast. Crom- 
well, seated upon the throne previously occupied 
by the Stuarts, the absolute ruler of the British 
realm, still points upward and tells his country- 
men to worship not him, the Huntington squire, 
but Him before whom he himself is but a worm of 
the dust. lyeyasu, a contemporary of Cromwell, 
with powers unbounded, has divine homage paid 
to his person and his corpse. Neither Moses nor 
Cromwell dared usurp the divine throne. Augustus 
and lyeyasu robbed their god of his thunder. 



136 TKe Japanese Nation 

The people whose gods are inferior to mortal 
sovereigns can never aspire high. To the last they 
are of the earth earthy. As long as they cling to 
earth, however high they may lift their head for a 
time in the struggle for life or for space, they can- 
not win in the higher spiritual race, which after 
all decides the fate of nations. 

Naturalism teaches us to be true to nature. 
No endeavour is exacted to conquer natural im- 
pulses unless they are followed to an extent sub- 
versive of their purpose. Whatever restraint we 
have put upon vices, or whatever encouragement 
we have given to virtues, has largely come from 
sources other than Shinto. 

Whether or not you adopt the epi-phenomenon 
theory of consciousness, you cannot deny the fact 
of Belial in our nature, so intertwined with the very 
fibre of our being as to set at defiance any effort 
to separate it as mere dust or stain. It seems to 
me that the weakness of Shinto as a religion lies 
in the non-recognition of human frailty, of sin. 
The awful sense of condemnation which torment 
Bunyan's Christian and all other seekers with the 
soul-rending cry, *'How can I flee from the wrath 
to come?" assumes with the Shintoist a far lighter 
strain, ''Is this good to be preferred to that good? " 
The dilemma in the one case lies between eternal 
salvation and eternal damnation, between heaven 
and hell ; whereas in the other it is a choice between 
two benefactions of different degrees, between this 
and that sunny spot in the groves of paradise. 



Religious Beliefs 137 

The mental and spiritual pendulum of Shinto does 
not swing wide. The fact that Shinto fails to 
take lofty spiritual flight has resulted in its form- 
ing close relations with temporal concerns, and 
its teachings are almost altogether practical, all 
of the sects enforcing personal cleanliness and 
diligence in daily occupation, and some of them 
requiring as religious duties mountain-climbing 
and abdominal respiration. 

As to the reverence it inculcates for whatever is 
above ourselves, — the love of the land where our 
gods abide and forefathers repose, the veneration 
of whatever is old, and respect and affection for 
nature and all its single objects, — no religion sur- 
passes ours. Its animism has endowed the very 
stones with sentient life, drawing from us a feeling 
of affection. Its pantheism and polytheism have 
peopled the air, land, and water, with beings that 
call forth our respect. This attitude toward nature 
instils into our mind the love of the land, the 
instinct of patriotism. Thus from being a worship 
of nature, Shinto becomes an ethnic religion. It 
is national in its concepts and precepts. Its 
patriotism, therefore, may easily fall into Chau- 
vinism. Its loyalty can degenerate into servile 
obedience. It can readily be made a political 
engine in the hands of the unscrupulous; — as 
such it can indeed be made a powerful one; 
but, as I have intimated, as a moral or a 
religious factor, it is and has been but a feeble 
motive force. 



138 XKe Japanese Nation 

Its child-like naivete, its very jejuneness, its 
easy-going ethics, verging on moral indifference, 
handicapped Shinto in coping with Buddhism and 
Confucianism, when they entered our country in 
the early centuries of our history. The backing 
of the Court and its claim to nativity could not 
brook the overwhelming tide of these alien teach- 
ings. "After terrible struggles," says Professor 
Kume, one of our foremost historical critics, 
"between the three systems of teaching, especially 
between Shinto and Buddhism, peace was finally 
established, whereby the sphere was virtually 
divided among the three. ' Shinto received the 
dominion of public ceremonies, Buddhism of 
religion, and Confucianism of ethics. " 

The yearnings, intellectual and spiritual, which 
Shinto could not meet, were more fully satisfied 
by Confucianism and Buddhism. You may remem- 
ber that Chinese studies were introduced into 
Japan in the middle of the third century A.D., and 
that the seed, falling upon fertile ground, was 
sprouting and growing with unusual rapidity and 
vitality when Buddhism reached the land. 

The introduction of Buddhism into Japan dates 
back to the middle of the sixth century. Its mis- 
sionary operations ever since the time of King 
Asoka (250 B.C.) had been reaping considerable fruit 
in the southern part of Asia, and extended by way 
of Bactria as far as Syria and Egypt, and even 
into Greece and Macedonia. By 67 a.d. it found 
its way to China, being brought thither by Chinese 



Religious Beliefs 139 

emissaries, who had been despatched westward in 
search of a new reHgion which, prophecy had 
declared, would be started about that time, — a pro- 
phecy which might have referred to Christianity, 
as far as time was concerned. 

It is well to bear in mind that Buddhism is 
divided into two great branches, the Northern and 
the Southern, more divergent than the Protestant 
and the Roman Catholic faiths. The Southern 
branch, called also the ''Lesser Vehicle, " accepted 
in Ceylon and Siam, is a purer form and simpler 
in doctrine. The Northern, called the ''Greater 
Vehicle" {Mahd Ydna in Sanskrit or Daijo in 
Japanese), has deviated widely from the original 
teachings of Sakya Muni, the founder. It has 
gained not only in intellectual volume, in theology 
and philosophy, but also in accretions of foreign 
matter, absorbing the teachings and legends and 
gods of alien and hostile religions. It was this 
Northern form of Buddhism that passed from 
China to Japan via Korea. It came just at the 
time when the country was eager to learn from 
abroad. On its arrival, it found the ground already 
occupied by Confucianism, which counted among 
its adherents the members of the Court and the 
learned of the land. Naturally it was met by 
opposition from them; but, at the same time, it 
was among them that the new tenets won their 
first votaries. 

The Chinese ideograms, which were made famil- 
iar through Confucianism, were a ready instrument 



140 THe Japanese Nation 

in the hands of Buddhists for the extension of 
their doctrines, and, endowed with erudition and 
deep insight and large experience in propagandism, 
they may well be said to have created a new era 
in the history of the Sunrise Kingdom. The meta- 
physical queries with which Shinto could ill cope 
and which were stimulated by Confucianism could 
now be answered. The educational value of Budd- 
hism in Japan cannot be overestimated. It did not 
stop in its activities with things spiritual. Its 
influence penetrated and permeated all the rami- 
fications of our national life. It touched the very 
fountains of thought and set a-fiowing new cur- 
rents of ideas. It sobered the light-hearted nature- 
worshippers. It furnished a deeper interpretation 
of ancestor- worship. It created new notions of 
nature and life. It invented a new vocabulary. 
It gave rise to new arts, trades, and crafts. It 
initiated a new polity of government. It changed 
the whole social structure. Indeed, there was 
nothing that was not impregnated with the 
doctrines of Gautama. 

All this astonishing work was primarily due to 
the conquest made by Buddhism in the conver- 
sion, during the latter part of the sixth century, 
of the Prince Imperial and Regent of the Crown. 
A man of the highest character and of unlimited 
ability, who combined in his person all the sagacity 
of a statesman and all the virtues of a saint — a 
savant and an artist — Shotoku Daishi took under 
his patronage the native followers and foreign 



Religioxis Beliefs 141 

teachers of the new faith. A unique figure in the 
annals of our country, his contributions to our 
civilisation were incalculable. Upon the principles 
of Gautama's teaching, yet without infraction to 
the traditions of his race, he framed a constitution 
— the so-called Constitution of Seventeen Articles 
— ^for the governance of the nation. He estab- 
lished different institutions of charity, such as 
monasteries, orphanages, dispensaries, hospitals; 
he built many temples, some of which are still 
standing as marvellous monuments of architecture, 
having weathered the storms of time for well-nigh 
fifteen centuries. 

Under his Imperial patronage the new religion 
steadily gained in numbers and influence, contribut- 
ing, as it made its own progress, to that of culture 
in general. But, very soon after the death of this 
Prince, it began to be disturbed by sectarian 
differences of opinion. 

Among' the founders of sects, two names are 
worthy of special mention, Saicho (otherwise 
Dengyo) and Kukai (canonised as Kobo Daishi), 
founders respectively of the two strong sects of 
Tendai (Heavenly Command), and Shingon (True 
Word). Both belonged to the early part of the 
ninth century. 

Though both of these saints studied in China 
and the fimdamentals of their sects were brought 
thence, they not only admitted the incult into their 
faith but absorbed Shinto gods into their pantheon. 
That is to say, they "Buddhified" the old Kami. 



142 THe Japanese Nation. 

The goddess of the sun, for instance, who occupied 
the highest position in the Shinto pantheon, was 
interpreted as an avatar of Buddhist existence, 
and the lesser gods shared the same fate of adop- 
tion. There was not a legend, not a rite of Shinto 
origin, which could not find its counterpart or 
parallel in the all-embracing system of Buddhism. 

In short, Shinto was swallowed up in the new 
faith, though it has never admitted that it lost its 
own identity, but has always claimed a nominal 
independence side by side with Buddhism. It has 
kept, as it were, the names of its gods and the 
framework of its ritual, yet without power or life. 
It has barely continued its hold upon the people 
by its traditions and prestige. Like the con- 
dominium of England and Egypt in the Sudan, 
the two faiths were allied in the spiritual dom- 
ination of Japan; allied — but how unequally! 
The alliance lasted throughout centuries with a 
separate field allotted to each, as I have said 
before. Adjustment was made between them, so 
as to leave little cause for quarrel. Each had its 
own temples — the Buddhists delighting in grand 
and ornate architecture of Hindu origin, gaudy in 
colour and filled with mystic symbols of worship. 

Very few Shinto shrines retained their original 
integrity; for the greater part the two religions 
mixed and mingled. Buddhist deities found lodg- 
ment side by side with Shinto gods under the 
same shelter. In private households you still see 
a miniature Buddhist shrine, and close by it a 



Reli^io\is Beliefs 143 

shelf provided with a few instruments of Shinto 
cult. When a birth occurs in the family, the babe 
is taken to a Shinto shrine for consecration and 
blessing ; but when there is a death, the funeral is 
often conducted by a Buddhist priest. Shinto 
festivals are occasions of joy and rejoicing, of 
thanksgiving and merry-making. Buddhist festi- 
vals are usually suggestive of sin and of sorrow, 
of sober thoughts and sombre musings. 

The final and practical identity of all religions 
has been expressed in a well-known verse : — 

" Be it crystal of snow-flake frail, 
Be it globule of hoary hail, 

Be it the form of thick-ribbed ice, — 
If but the sun's warm rays upon them fall, 
They melt and merge in one element all." 

Thus in closest ties united, the two faiths had 
spent centuries together, when, with the Restora- 
tion of the Imperial power in 1868, Shinto resumed 
its ancient dignity, and, like a prodigal suddenly 
awakened to the consciousness that he had been 
joined to an unworthy mate, the native faith left 
the spouse of alien origin; but the separation is 
still largely on legal paper only. The offspring of a 
long union is not easily to be disowned and the 
populace continue to worship the Kami and the 
Buddha with equal reverence and fervour. As 
ecclesiastical institutions they are both equally 
recognised by the Government. 

The fact that there are only about 72,000 



144 XHe Japanese Nation 

Buddhist temples, as against some 162,000 Shinto 
shrines, might seem to place Buddhism in a sub- 
ordinate position; but the former are, on the 
average, much larger and more costly, and they 
accommodate a far larger priesthood, the Buddhist 
clergy numbering over fifty thousand and the 
Shinto priests only fifteen thousand. In erudition 
and in character, the Buddhist priests are decidedly 
f superior to their Shinto compeers. Concerning 
the number of their respective followers, in neither 
case can any statistics be given. Both may reckon 
the whole Japanese population as their constitu- 
ency; but as far as open confession and earnest 
attendance to religious duties are concerned, the 
Buddhists excel the Shintoists. For instance, no 
Shinto sect can vie with the Hokkei, or the follow- 
ers of that commanding figure of religious history, 
Nichiren, in keeping alive the fire of enthusiasm; 
or with the Shin sect, which, of the twelve main 
sects of Japan, is numerically the strongest. The 
popularity of the Shin and some other sects is 
due chiefly to their tact and talent in adapting 
their teachings to the mental capacity of the 
populace. ''Look at the people and preach ac- 
cordingly, " is a guiding principle of their homi- 
letics. Not only the sermons but the doctrines, 
and, I dare say, the preachers themselves, have 
come to stoop down to the level of the masses. 
Hence, modem Buddhism, at least in Japan, has 
two aspects. In one it caters to the men of the 
street; in the other, it illuminates a saint and a 



Religio\jis Beliefs 145 

scholar. While it demonstrates to the instructed 
the vanity of belief in personal immortality, it 
depicts in glaring colours for the ignorant a gory 
hell. While it expounds to the learned that there 
is no supernatural being, it paints for the canaille 
a land peopled with every conceivable form of 
existence. While for the vulgar it indulges in 
''pious frauds and holy shifts," it opens to the 
enlightened all the resources of intellect. Bud- 
dhism for the populace has in too many instances 
deterioriated into nonsense, barely kept up by 
cheap incense. But Buddhism for the initiated, 
Higher Buddhism, is something vastly different. 
To convey its main beliefs in terms of Occidental 
philosophy or theology, is a task of surpassing 
difficulty, as a great many of its concepts hardly 
fit into Western categories. 

The most original and authentic exposition of 
the teaching of Sakya Muni is embodied in the 
following sentences, which he uttered as he came 
down from a mount of meditation : 

* 'There are two extremes which he who has renounced 
the world ought not to follow, — habitual devotion, 
on the one hand, to sensual pleasures, which is degrad- 
ing, vulgar, ignoble, unprofitable, fit only for the 
worldly-minded; and habitual devotion, on the other 
hand, to self -mortification, which is painful, ignoble, 
unprofitable. There is a middle path discovered by 
the Tathagata (Buddha), a path which opens the 
eyes and bestows understanding, which leads to peace, 
to insight, to the higher wisdom, to Nirvana. Verily! 



146 TKe Japanese Nation 

it is this noble (Aryan) Eight-fold Path {ariyo 
attangiko maggo) ; that is to say, Right Views, Right 
Aspirations (or Resolves), Right Speech, Right Con- 
duct (or Work), Right Livelihood, Right Effort (or 
Training), Right Mindfulness, and Right Rapture." 

This first public utterance of Gautama, delivered 
in Pali to his five former associates in Benares, is 
known as the Bana, and sounds simple enough at 
first hearing. The instant we inquire what is 
meant by the noble Eight-fold Path, we are struck 
at once by the recondite meanings attached to 
each of these categories. Indeed, the use of the 
mere adjective "Aryan," or "noble," as applied 
to wisdom, calls forth our admiration for the 
grandeur of his thought. It is not an ethnic dis- 
tinction but indicates a grade of wisdom — ^not 
man's wisdom, not his intellect, but a wisdom pro- 
lific of more wisdom. The term "right " {samma), 
which modifies all the Eight-fold Path, may be 
interpreted in a narrow, bigoted sense or in a 
broad, loving sense. For instance. Right Views 
may be interpreted, as Sir Monier Williams seems 
inclined to do, as belief in Buddha and his doc- 
trine; Right Resolve, according to him, means 
abandoning one's wife and family, and Right 
Speech, mere recitation of Buddha's doctrine; 
Right Livelihood, living by alms ; Right Work, the 
exercise of a monk. Sir Monier's book is often 
misleading, always bent upon depreciation of Bud- 
dhism, and cannot be trusted as a fair presenta- 



Religio\JS Beliefs 147 

tion. The Right Views (samma ditthi) include 
Right Views regarding existence, whether it is 
permanent or transient, whether it is a being or 
a becoming, and other Hke searching questions. Of 
Right Mindedness {sati), four subHme states are 
i:ecounted ; namely, those of Love, of Sorrow at the 
sorrow of others, of Joy with those who rejoice, 
and of calm Equanimity in one's own joys and 
sorrows. 

Under Right Conduct {kammanto) the power of 
love is portrayed and its exercise enjoined, forming 
a fit parallel to the thirteenth chapter of the first 
Epistle to the Corinthians. It says^: 

" All the means that can be used as bases for doing 
right are not worth the sixteenth part of the emancipa- 
tion of heart through love. Love takes them all up 
into itself, outshining them in radiance and glory. 

Just as whatsoever stars there be, their radiance 
avails not the sixteenth part yf the radiance of the 
moon, Love takes them all up into itself, outshining 
them in radiance and glory. 

Just as in the last month of the rains, at harvest 
time, the sun, mounting up on high into the clear and 
cloudless sky, overwhelms all darkness in the realms 
of space, and shines forth in radiance and glory; — 
just as in the night, when the dawn is breaking, the 
Morning Star shines out in radiance and glory; — 
just so all the means that can be used as helps towards 
doing right avail not the sixteenth part of the emanci- 
pation of heart through love! " 

' I follow the translation of Rhys- Davids. 



148 THe Japanese Nation 

Or, under the head of Right Rapture {samahdi), 
is described the beatitude of one who has attained 
to Nirvana — that state of spiritual exaltation 
where no evil can touch or harm him. It is a 
state of rapture and joy, and not of unfeeling 
indifference, as it is sometimes supposed to be. 

** Blessed are we who hate not those who hate us; 
Who among men full of hate, continue void of hate. 
Blessed are we who dwell in health among the ailing; 
Who among men weary and sick, continue well. 
Blessed are we who dwell free from care among the 

care-worn ; 
Who among men full of worries, continue calm. 
Blessed indeed are we who have no hindrances ; 
Who shall become feeders on joy, like the gods in 
their shining splendour." 

Were we to search among the voluminous litera- 
ture of Buddhism, we should often come across 
words and thoughts, parables and incidents, with 
which the Gospels have made us familiar, — so 
much so, that not a few suspect a strong influence 
of Buddhism upon early Christianity. 

But this is too large a theme for me to take up 
now. Whether the origins of the two religions— 
now called the religion of the East and the religion 
of the West — ^be one or two, if we divest both of 
their wrappage, we shall come to know how nearly 
allied in many particulars they are. Though at 
the foot of the hill the ways are far apart, as we 
ascend higher and higher, the nearer approach our 



Religious Beliefs 149 

paths, until they meet at the summit, to share the 
view of the plains below from the height of the 
same divine wisdom. On this height in the ful- 
ness of time may be brought into common brother- 
hood, the philosophers of the North and the 
seers of the South, the thinkers of the West, 
and the wise men of the East, — and God shall be 
glorified by all His children. The hour is coming 
when neither on the mountains of Samaria nor 
in the city of Jerusalem, — not alone in the Orient, 
neither in the Occident, — but in spirit and in 
truth, wherever men come together in brotherly 
love, shall they worship the same Father. 



CHAPTER VI 

MORALS AND MORAL IDEALS 

UNDER various names — characterology, sophi- 
ology, ethology, race psychology — the study 
of alien character has been cultivated to discover 
some traits peculiar to different races, and this 
has given rise to the so-called Volkergedanken 
theory, which takes for granted without demon- 
stration that every race must be possessed of some 
mental and moral features not shared by others. 
He will indeed be a great discoverer who can find 
in any ethnic group a -new capacity of the mind 
unknown to other groups ! 

No phase of national life is more difficult to 
grasp than the moral. To interpret it intelligently 
one must often change one's viewpoint in looking 
at the apparent singtilarities of a people's man- 
ners and customs. Above all, not to draw conclu- 
sions without first inquiring into the proper bounds 
and the underlying motive of unfamiliar usages 
and the moral habits of a race, is indispensable to 
right judgment; for these are usually the product 
of national history and geography. A thoughtful 

150 



Morals and Moral Ideals 151 

observer can soon reduce them to a common 
denominator or what Bastian calls the Elementar- 
gedanken of the human race. 

It may seem a startling theme ; but nothing will 
illustrate my meaning better than the kiss. In 
the West — well, you know how it is regarded; in 
the East, in Japan in particular, the word is not 
so much as mentioned without a blush. The 
West may say: "No kiss? How cold the Oriental 
heart must be!" The East will say: "Kissing in 
public! What bad taste!" The West may say: 
"How strange! Because it is something so natu- 
ral." The East says: "How strange! It is too 
natural. " In the West, it is elevated to a proper 
moral act ; in the East it is degraded to the sphere 
of the improper. 

We read in ecclesiastical history that in early 
times Christian worshippers adopted the practice 
of promiscuous kissing, under the name of the 
"kiss of peace. " The practice had not continued 
very long before the graver Fathers found that 
this pious act was too zealously followed by the 
younger brethren and sisters to be spiritually edi- 
fying. It was soon restricted to the kissing of 
man by man, and woman by woman. 

I have often wondered about the kissing-margin 
of the West, and I understand that it does not go 
beyond first cousins, and that, if carried farther, 
it is fraught with some danger — ^from -which I 
infer, some kind of infection is feared ! I have also 
wondered about the marginal kiss — that is to 



152 TKe Japanese Nation 

say, the different gradations of kissing, A kiss on 
the cheek is certainly of a grade different from 
that on the forehead or on the Hps, and very 
different from that on the hand or on the toe. I 
might go on asking a thousand questions about 
this extraordinary Western custom, which I confess 
I have never ceased to regard with some amaze- 
ment; but I have said enough to hint a doubt as 
to the appropriate limit of the practice. Even 
the Japanese do not hesitate to kiss children on 
the cheek. 

Now it is just the proper bounds — fitly named 
the Golden Mean — that determine the approval 
or the condemnation of a social usage, and these 
proper bounds are usually so delicate as to elude 
any definition. In other words, an Oriental who 
may adopt a custom he does not understand, is 
not likely to know how far to go. Just the same 
thing happens in Japan. I have more than once 
seen American men at Japanese banquets or in 
Japanese inns taking far greater liberty with the 
girls who wait upon them than our national cus- 
toms consider allowable, and yet it is just these 
men who throw a shade upon the morals of our 
women and whose false interpretations have had 
such wide hearing ; therefore I make bold to men- 
tion this subject here. 

Again, a Japanese in an American ball-room 
sees ladies exposing their shoulders. An American 
notices that the dress of Japanese women flaps in 
the wind, and forthwith a Puritanic frown appears 



Morals and Moral Ideals 153 

on his forehead and he calls the dress and the 
wearer immoral. Or he sometimes sees in the 
country a peasant woman bathing by. the road- 
side. He infers that these women must be utterly 
depraved — a conclusion as hasty and as irrational 
as would be a suspicion on the part of the Japanese 
that the ladies at the ball are not modest, or that 
the occupants of a house adorned with nude pic- 
tures and statues can have no sense of decorum. 
Non sequitur, as the logicians say. It is true that 
our people do not hesitate to lay bare the body 
to the extent of what may be termed a utilitarian 
marginal nudity, when convenience requires this, 
whereas the European custom is for women to 
exhibit charm of person when there is least reason 
for it. With us it is no shame to tuck one's kimono 
high on a rainy day, whereas it is a breach of eti- 
quette to let the foot, even though clad in spotless 
tabi, protrude unnecessarily in the parlour. 

No two parties can ever come to a mutual 
understanding as long as either of them arrogates 
the attitude of superiority, and refuses to divest 
itself of what von der Steinen calls Culturhrille — 
the coloured spectacles of one's own civilisation. 
Satisfied with his own righteousness, a Pharisee 
can never comprehend the beauty — not to say the 
superiority — in the teachings of other sects. 

"That way 
Over the mountain which who stands upon, 
Is apt to doubt if it be indeed a road ; 



154 XHe Japanese Nation 

While if he views it from the waste itself, 

Up goes the line there, plain from base to b*ow, 

Not vague, mistakable ! What 's a break or two 

Seen from the unbroken desert either side? 

And then (to bring in fresh philosophy) , 

What if the breaks themselves should prove at last 

The most consummate of contrivances 

To train a man's eyes, teach him what is faith?" 

Many others than Browning have felt the same, 
and only the most thoughtless are denied the sight 
of a road threading the apparent waste. 

It is a remark too often made by foreign tourists 
that Japanese life is as singularly devoid of morals 
as Japanese flowers are of scent — a sad confession 
of the moral and intellectual limitations of the 
accusers themselves! When Pierre Loti gives an 
account of Madame Chrysantheme, he does not 
portray a typical Japanese woman, but only fur- 
nishes a clue as to the kind of company he keeps. 

Those who associate fragrance with roses only, 
or morality with conventional Christianity, are 
sure to be disappointed in finding but little of 
either in Japan; but that is no proof that the 
ume blossoms are not fragrant, or that chivalry 
does not teach pragmatism. There is, however, 
good reason why the busy West knows so little of 
the Far East, especially regarding things which 
cannot be bought or sold with cash, for we have 
neither bottled the essence of the ume in flasks, 
like attar of roses, nor bound the precepts of 
knighthood in a gilt-edged pocket edition. 



Morals and Moral Ideals 155 

The age of chivalry is said to have passed away. 
As an institution it has disappeared, but sad will 
be the day when the virtues it has taught shall 
likewise have disappeared! Fortunately for us, 
like a disembodied spirit, they still live on, some- 
what modified, but retaining their essential 
qualities. 

This ethical and spiritual legacy we call Bushido, 
which literally signifies Fighting- Knight-Ways, or 
better translated, Teachingsof Knightly Behaviour. 
It was the moral code of the samurai — the class of 
knights whose badge and privilege it was to wear 
two swords. Do not imagine that they were only 
swaggering, blood-thirsty youths. The sword was 
called the soul of the samurai. Like "The 
Sword of Robert Lee, " it flashed from its scabbard 
for the purpose of 

** Shielding the feeble, smiting the strong, 
Guarding the right, avenging the wrong." 

As a separate class, the samurai no longer exists 
except in name; but the noblesse oblige which dis- 
tinguished it still remains. In his palmiest days 
■ — that is during the feudal ages — the samurai was 
the man. In popular ballad it was sung, "As 
among flowers the cherry is queen, so among men 
the samurai is lord. " His ideals filtered down to 
the lower classes and his moral code became the 
standard for the nation. 

The strength and perhaps also the weakness of 
Bushido lay in this, that it possessed no written 



156 TKe Japanese Nation 

creed. It was sufficient for its followers only to 
feel that theo-e was something in their mind — the 
mysteries of which they little cared to analyse — 
always active with admonitions, which, when dis- 
obeyed, heaped upon the transgressors fiery coals 
of shame, and which could be appeased only by 
implicit obedience. In the absence of any written 
commandments, the Ren-chi-shin (consciousness 
of shame) was the last and highest court of appeal. 
A man who had lost his sense of shame forfeited 
his human claims. 

He is the best man who has no cause to be 
ashamed, who so masters himself that his thoughts 
and his person are his willing servants. A great 
warrior of the eleventh century left a verse behind 
him, which, roughly translated, runs : 

" Subdue first of all thy own self, 
Next thy friends, and last thy foes; 
Three victories are these of him 
That would a conqueror's name attain.** 

Self-mastery — the maintenance of equanimity 
of temper under conditions the most trying, 
whether in war or in peace, of composure and pres- 
ence of mind in sudden danger, self-possession 
under calamity and reverses — was inculcated as 
one of the primary virtues of man; it was even 
drilled into youths by genuine Spartan methods. 

Strange as it may seem at first appearance, this 
strong fortification of self against external causes 
of surprise was but one side of self-abnegation. 



Morals and Moral Ideals 157 

One of the terms of highest praise was "a man 
without a me." The complete effacement of self 
meant one's identification with some higher cause. 
The very duties which man performs are, according 
to our idea, not to buy salvation for himself; he 
has no prospect of a ''reward in heaven" offered 
him, if he does this or does not abstain from that. 
The voice of conscience, "Thou good and faithful 
servant, " is the only and sufficient reward. 

Conscience, called among us by the comprehen- 
sive term Kokoro (which may mean mind, spirit, 
or heart), was the only criterion of right and 
wrong. But conscience, being a power of percep- 
tion, and the whole tenor of Bushido being action, 
the harmonious working of the two was taught in 
the Socratic doctrine — though Socrates was as 
unknown to us as X-rays — that thought and 
action are one and the same. 

He who pursues virtuous conduct for the sake 
of virtue is, in our estimation, the noblest of men. 
He asks not for worldly reward. He who knows, 
and lives up to the knowledge, that honour and 
shame rise from no condition of life, but solely 
from acting or not acting one's own part — such a 
conscientious man is rare anywhere. Mediocrity 
must be fed on a more diluted diet, and with us 
this is found in an inferior grade of the honour- 
sense — namely, in the fear of personal disgrace or in 
the maintenance of family pride. ''You will be 
laughed at," is the usual dose of sedative advice 
administered to an unruly child. Brought up in 



158 TKe Japanese Nation 

constant fear of disgracing oneself if one but strays 
from the path trodden by others, a child grows 
into a law-abiding or rather custom-abiding citizen, 
though he becomes so at the expense of freedom 
of thought and initiative of action. When, in 
spite of social control, he is inclined to be too 
independent, all the weight of a long line of ances- 
try is brought to bear on his proper behaviour. 
With a large majority of our people there is no 
higher appeal to morality than family pride — a 
kind of pride which, instead of going before de- 
struction, avoids it. You will understand its 
significance better when I speak of filial love. To 
elevate the name of one's family becomes a spur 
to virtue and a curb to vice, and attains the dignity 
of a religious duty. We owe our being to our 
parents, and through them to our ancestors, and 
we can repay them only by gratitude and by 
showing forth their glory; hence nothing is more 
humiliating to one's self-respect than to bring 
into disrepute one's cognomen. 

Confucius teaches that the highest act of filial 
affection is to make manifest the name of one's 
parent. Nothing so honours parents as that 
their son should add lustre to their memory; 
Decor i decus addit avito. In this connection I may 
be allowed to make a moment's digression regard- 
ing the charge, so often made in Japan, that 
Christianity does not sufficiently emphasise filial 
affection. It is only fair to state that Jesus ful- 
filled the highest ideal of Confucian ethics; for 



Morals and Moral Ideals 159 

did he not make illustrious his family, when, 
astonished at his mighty works, the multitude 
began to ask: *'Is this the carpenter's son? Is not 
his mother called Mary?" 

The sense of family solidarity not only delivers 
individual members from destruction but con- 
tributes toward their legal and moral cohesion. 
How many youths check their ardent desire for 
self-aggrandisement and hopes for larger life or 
higher calling, in order that they may attend to 
small matters of family interest! How many 
maidens sacrifice their aspirations for the welfare 
of their home! How many mothers slave and 
drudge to keep up ancestral reputation ! Individ- 
uals are, figuratively speaking, made victims at 
the shrine of family- worship ; their very personal- 
ity is nipped in the bud at the same altar. I am 
sure family-honour obtains in America, too; but 
the conception of the family is somewhat different. 

Our family is based on vertical relations, on 
successive, superimposed generations, from parents 
to children. Your system is, I think, based on a 
lateral or contemporary alliance, on the relations 
between persons of the same generation — namely, 
on husband and wife. The conjugal system is 
claimed to be Christian and ordained from on 
high — that is, as long as the parties are in favour 
of it. If conjugality is divinely ordered, what 
sanction has divorce? Or is the latter, in contrast 
to the former, the work of the evil one? Or does 
God change His mind now and then according as 



i6o TKe Japanese Nation 

the two persons interested desire union or separa- 
tion? To a Christian novice like myself it sounds 
like taking the name of the Lord in vain, when it 
is dragged into transactions where man's free will 
should be held responsible. I have no objection 
to thanking God for union in marriage ; but if one 
is disappointed in wedlock, God should not be 
blamed for it. Marriage is a human institution, 
and in a sense less divinely ordered than parentage. 
Our heathen conception is that the relation be- 
tween parent and child is more divinely ordered 
and ordained. These cannot be divorced by a 
minister or by law. Christians claim that Adam 
and Eve were the first human beings, and therefore 
conjugal relations take precedence of all other 
moral obligations. The heathen, at least the 
Japanese, contend that filial duty was the first 
moral conception, even antedating the parental. 

There was a time in Eden when Eve was an 
utter stranger. Before this long-haired creature 
appeared, Adam had already often communed 
with his Maker, Creator, Father. So, even accord- 
ing to the Biblical narrative, a moral relation had 
existed between Father and son before that be- 
tween husband and wife; in other words, filiality 
anteceded conjugality in the evolution of ethics. 
Well-nigh unknown among the lower animals, it 
was the first to be felt by man. 

In all conservative countries, reverence towards 
parents is scrupulously taught and observed. 
*' Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy 



Morals and Moral Ideals i6i 

days may be long upon the land which the Lord 
thy God giveth thee." Long-lived nations have 
been those obedient to this commandment. 

Honouring parents is, of course, by no means 
confined solely to mere obedience, or to looking 
after their physical wants. These are trivialities 
in honouring. To distinguish oneself in good works, 
as Confucius has taught, redounds to the glory 
of one's family and is the great filial duty. Science 
will, I presume, explain more and more the mysteri- 
ous laws of heredity, and the practical application 
of eugenics and breeding will reveal the under- 
lying principles of ancestor-worship and family 
integrity. I am far from deprecating the place 
of personality in the scheme of moral economy; 
but Western individualism will, I am afraid, prove 
itself inadequate to cope with all the pending 
problems of life. As among plants and animals 
none can live alone, and each can live only by 
being associated in close relations to other animals 
and plants in its proximity, so the study of human 
ecology — of immediate milieu, of family environ- 
ment — will demonstrate in a fresh light the wis- 
dom of the older civilisations of the East. Balzac 
once bewailed the disintegration of the family in 
Europe on the ground that it was at the root of 
modern social diseases. But I am not here to 
preach. If I were to preach, I would rather do so 
to my own countrymen from the text, "Say not 
among yourselves, We have Abraham for our 
father!" ... 

II 



i62 XHe Japanese Nation 

In discussing the institution of the family, the 
status of woman must needs occupy a considerable 
part. Nowhere is this more true than in the case 
of the Japanese woman. She exists primarily for 
and in the family. We still adhere to the old way 
of thinking that her natural habitat is the home, 
and that her appearance at the polls is as unnatural 
as on the battle-field. Somehow an idea — perhaps 
obsolete in America — ^prevails among us, — an idea 
once voiced by Euripides — namely, that "a woman 
should be good for everything at home, but 
abroad good for nothing. " Let it be far from me 
to give an impression already too prevalent abroad 
and at home, that we look upon women only as 
cogs in the machinery of the kitchen or as mere 
puppets and ornaments in the parlour. The per- 
sonality of the fair sex is not as clearly recognised 
among us as it ought to be; but I am confident 
that it will come with more general enlightenment 
of public conscience. As it is at present, the aim 
of female education is to make "a good wife and 
a wise mother, " — a stereotyped shibboleth on the 
lips of all educators and of the nation, circum- 
scribing the end and aim of woman's life. Accord- 
ing to this doctrine it is not as person, but as 
wife and as mother, that woman is to be educated. 

I doubt if this dogmatic allegation concerning 
the vocation of woman, without spiritual signifi- 
cance attached to it, can really be the last word 
to be said concerning her sex." A Nora Helmer 
is not native to Norway only: she is born every- 



Morals and Moral Ideals 163 

where, wherever similar conditions exist. Her 
words — "I beHeve that before all else I am a 
human being, just as much as you are" — can and 
will be uttered in other languages than Scandinav- 
ian. Consistently with our apotheosis of mother- 
craft, there are few unmarried women among us. 
Generally girls marry between the ages of eighteen 
and twenty- two. They seldom choose their own 
partners, but still more seldom are they forced to 
marry those to whom they object. Most enter- 
taining things are written by foreigners about 
marriages forced upon unwilling brides, and even 
of marriages by purchase. I may just as truly 
amuse and instruct my own people with stories 
about ambitious American parents practically sell- 
ing their daughters to European nobles, or of the 
sorrows of manage de convenance in Europe. But 
the comparative study of each other's shortcom- 
ings is not edifying — muck-raking never is. There 
are certainly more opportunities for American 
girls to marry the men whom they most love, and, 
vice versa, for men to take to wife girls whom they 
like best; but I doubt whether the proportion of 
happy unions is very different in the two countries. 
Should the choice lie wholly with the parties 
immediately concerned, would they not in most 
cases profit by the mature judgment of their 
parents, instead of rushing uncounselled into rela- 
tions which may prove a life-long bondage, on the 
slender experience and in the blindness of youthful 
love? I am not at all surprised at the number of 



164 TTKe Japanese Nation 

divorces in this country; rather am I surprised 
that the ultimate causes which lead to them, are 
accepted as a matter of course. 

Is then the lot of Japanese wives better? Far 
from it! The number of divorces is appalling, 
and is indeed a disgrace to our family system. 
Japan and America head the world's list in numbers 
of divorces. I have purposely said that this is 
a disgrace to our family system, avoiding the term 
marriage system; for in a large proportion of our 
divorces, the cause is to be found not in the 
rupture of conjugal relations, but in the custom of 
a married son living under the same roof with his 
parents ; in short, in the universally notorious rela- 
tionship between a wife and a mother-in-law! It 
argues a marvellous amount of fortitude and sweet- 
ness in the women of Japan that they bear the 
burden of wifehood and motherhood under condi- 
tions so exacting. Without a deep sense of family 
pride and self-abnegation, it would be impossible 
for any woman of whatever race or nationality, to 
keep up the courage and equanimity of temper 
that our women do. I may add in passing that 
it is becoming more and more the custom for 
young married couples to have separate establish- 
ments of their own — a custom which is destined to 
affect divorce. It is a remark heard quite often 
among foreigners that some of our old women 
ipbdsan) have faces of spiritual maturity, wearing 
an expression of attainment — the countenance of 
one who has fought a hard fight and won it. For, 



Morals and Moral Ideals 165 

together with man, our woman shares the Spartan 
teaching of patience and heroism. Especially is 
this true of the samurai woman. She has been 
trained to inure her nerves to her lot. Sobs and 
shrieks have ever been regarded as unworthy of 
her. She was debarred from giving expression to 
sorrow, even if the heart, over- wrought with grief, 
should break. Verily she has her reward, in the 
respect shown her by all, and in the adoration of 
her children. As I have said elsewhere, there is 
no more tender relation than that between the 
Japanese mother and her son. 

Nothing is more erroneous than to regard the 
general character of our women as anything like 
that of the geisha type. The very raison d'etre of 
the latter class lay in the fact that our wives and 
mothers were sedate and even stern ''home-made 
bodies, " with little tact for entertaining and much 
less for amusing, better versed in ancient poems 
than in the newest songs, more deft with needle 
and spear than with the guitar and the samisen. 
The presence of professional entertainers — dancers 
and singers — ^in our society has called forth much 
criticism both from our own people and from for- 
eigners. The geisha are not necessarily "bad 
women,'* as you call them, not any worse profes- 
sionally than the actresses and vaudeville artistes 
of America. There is little immodesty inherent 
in their vocation, but danger to feminine probity 
there certainly is. I am afraid, however, that 
they will continue to be in demand until our wives 



i66 TKe Japanese Nation 

and daughters learn the art of entertaining their 
guests and appear more freely in society. The 
presence of tlie geisha does not of necessity argue 
immorality. As I have said in the early part of 
this lecture, there is a recognised margin of de- 
corum in their deportment and treatment. 

Plutarch tells us that the ambition of a Spartan 
woman was to be the wife of a great man and the 
mother of illustrious sons. Bushido set no lower 
ideal before our maidens ; their whole bringing up 
was in accordance with this view. They were 
instructed in many martial practices for the sake 
of self-defence, that they might safeguard their 
person and their children ; in the art of committing 
suicide, that in case no alternative opened to save 
them from disgrace, they might end their lives in 
due order and in comely fashion. That she might 
keep her honour spotless, upon leaving the threshold 
of her father's house, every maiden was given a 
dagger to use it upon herself in extremity. Such 
a dagger was called goshin-to, "the protector of 
one's person.'* She had already learned exactly 
where to cut her throat and how to bind her lower 
limbs, so that in the agony of death she might not 
throw them about indecently. Peaceful accom- 
plishments — music, dancing, belles-lettres, the ar- 
ranging of flowers, etc. — ^were not to be neglected, 
but readiness for emergency, housekeeping, and 
the education of children were considered by far 
the most weighty lessons to be learned. 

If Stoicism is insisted upon for woman, much 



Morals and Moral Ideals 167 

more is it required of man ; so that no sooner is the 
heart stirred than the will is brought into reflex 
action to subdue it. Is a man angry? It is bad 
taste to rage; let him laugh out his indignation! 
Has tribulation stricken him? Let him bury his 
tears in smiles. If he must vary from an even 
temperature — say seventy degrees! — ^in his de- 
meanour, since nature will never remain long in 
equilibrium, let him be warm within and cold 
without; but let him see to it that he freezes 
nobody and throws a wet blanket upon none. It 
is a common remark that the Japanese are a light- 
hearted, mirth-loving people and that the girls 
are ever giggling dolls. This is due to their idea 
that cheerfulness is a part of politeness. 

The idea of politeness is, au fond, to make your 
company and companionship agreeable to others. 
It is the first requisite of good society. Bows and 
courtesies are but a small part of good-breeding. 
Etiquette is not an end in culture ; it is one of the 
many ways whereby man may foster his social 
nature. In drinking tea, it is a slight affair how 
you handle your spoon, but it is never too slight 
to show what you are. ''Manners make the man. " 
Stoicism and politeness, apparently so far apart, 
are in reality brother and sister: he bears all that 
she may shine; without her, he is stoHd; without 
him, she is trivial. 

Not infrequently have politeness and probity 
been set in opposition, as though the two must at 
times tread different paths. Confucius himself 



i68 XHe Japanese Nation 

has said, "In pleasant countenance and gentle 
words there is little benevolence," and some of 
his followers have gone to the extent of desecrating 
pleasant manners and speech, indirectly encourag- 
ing brusqueness and boorishmess, forgetting that 
rusticity is just as likely to harbour vice as is 
urbanity. If one is bent upon deceiving, manners 
set no barrier to this intent. Sincerity has little 
connection with man's outward mien, and what 
etiquette requires does not always involve moral 
issues. Etiquette stands between morals and art. 
She must combine in her person rectitude and 
charm. Hence her behaviour must not be judged 
by either standard alone. Is not this the reason 
why the so-called conventional lies of society are 
not condemned with the rigour which is meted to 
mendacity in general? It is to this civil kind of 
falsehood that Byron's words may be applied; 

"And after all, what is a lie? 'T is but 
The truth in masquerade." 

Now I have never studied lying — by which I 
do not mean that lying comes natural to me. I 
mean that I have never devoted serious attention 
to the philosophy or history of mendacity ; neither 
to its classification, characteristics, and different 
uses, nor to its effect upon man and woman. It is a 
matter of surprise to me that no scientific treatise 
(unless it be the didactic dissertation by Amelia 
Opie) has been written on an intellectual feat so 



Morals and Moral Ideals 169 

old and universal ; a device so convenient and his- 
torically so important. Just at this moment what 
interests me most is its chromatic quality — the 
relation between light and lie. In Japan there is 
only one colour for a lie — viz., the red. But in 
this rich country, you have at least two species — 
the black and the white. Like the colours worn 
by different Hindu castes, the white is, I suppose, 
of a higher grade than the black. They corre- 
spond, I think, to the "lie direct" and the "lie 
circumstantial" of Mr.. Touchstone in '^As You 
Like Itr 

To our benighted souls the verbal denial of a 
disagreeable situation (such as the state of one's 
health) does not assume any hideous moral or 
immoral aspect. It scarcely deserves to be called 
a red lie. Perhaps you would call it a white lie; 
but impartial comparison will soon reveal in what 
respect it differs from a species of the same genus, 
not unknown in this country — ^feigning absence 
when one is at home. Of late, unfortunately for 
both countries, there seems to have developed the 
yellow lie of journalism. Referring to yellow jour- 
nalism, I am reminded of a use of this adjective 
in our own language ; for we have always spoken 
of a shrill excited voice as ki-iro no koe, voice of 
yellow color ! 

Speaking of Japanese lies, I ought not to forget 
to mention the American lie about Japanese lying, 
which has been widely circulated in this country, 
and is constantly confirmed by tourists. You 



170 TTKe Japanese Nation 

must have heard that in Japanese banks only 
Chinese tellers and clerks are employed, because 
our own people are too dishonest to be trusted by 
each other. In corroboration of this accusation, 
those who have gone to banks in Yokohama or 
Kobe swear to the startling fact. *'I have been 
on the spot and have seen with my own eyes" — 
carries great weight in the determination of any 
question. I myself have seen Chinese employed 
in banks in Japan, but not in Japanese banks. 
Tourists in the Far East, for obvious reason of 
convenience, usually have their letters of credit 
drawn on English banks. Those who come to 
Japan have them drawn either on the Chartered 
Bank of Australia, India, and China, or on the 
Banking Corporation of Honkong and Shanghai, 
instead of on one of the two thousand three hundred 
and thirty-seven Japanese banks in the country. 
Where these British houses have their headquar- 
ters, is evident from their names. Their agencies 
in Japan are only a small part of their business, 
and their transactions with the Japanese are quite 
limited — their chief patrons being foreigners. 
Naturally their staff is also British, and the 
lower personnel is supplied by the Chinese, who 
are sent from headquarters. I do not believe 
there are even Americans at work in these British 
houses, but that does not prove the dishonesty 
of Americans any more than does the absence of 
Americans in a branch office of the Royal Bank of 
Canada or of the Credit Lyonnais in New York or 



Morals and Moral Ideals 171 

Chicago. Suppose a Japanese comes to this coun- 
try: he is provided with a letter of credit to the 
New York agency of the Specie Bank of Yoko- 
hama; so he wends his way for his money to No. 
58 Wall Street, finds a big and busy place and sees 
many people, among whom, however, except the 
stenographers and messengers, he sees no Ameri- 
cans. Suppose, on his return home, he goes about 
saying, "In America the people are so dishonest 
that no American tellers are employed, " should he 
not be believed? Believed? Why he was there 
and saw with his own eyes! I am sure he will 
thrill his audience if he closes his speech with the 
patriotic inference, "The honesty of our country- 
men is so well established that in American banks 
only Japanese tellers are employed!" 

There is no opprobium cast on Japanese charac- 
ter more widely accepted than this fable of our 
employing Chinese in our banks. Before I left 
the country on my present trip, I made investiga- 
tion as to whether a single Japanese bank employed 
Chinese as clerks, tellers or compradores. Since 
my arrival I have continued my inquiries, and here 
is the reply from our agent in Wall Street, explain- 
ing more fully than I have done, the real situation : 

" China having for many years been a silver-using 
country, and there being no proper coin of fixed 
weight, size, and fineness, but silver bullion of every 
description as to the fineness and size being used 
as medium of exchange, the Chinese people have 



172 THe Japanese Nation 

naturally become more or less experienced and trained 
not only to easily distinguish good silver from bad, 
but almost to tell its fineness by the ring of the 
metal when touched with a metal rod. 

It is therefore quite natural that so-called silver 
experts are found among the Chinese. Considering 
the monetary system prevailing in China, these people 
are quite necessary for the banks that are carrying on 
business in that country. 

Before Japan adopted the gold standard, as I previ- 
ously explained, silver was fractionally the only 
circulating medium in Japan. Even trade dollars 
were used to supplement the Japanese coinage. Japan 
having had legal-tender notes and coins issued by 
the Government for generations, her people naturally 
lacked the acquaintance with, and consequently the 
knowledge of silver bullion, and were not so well 
fitted to detect the variation in fineness as the Chinese 
experts. This is the reason why a few Chinese silver 
experts were at one time employed even in Japan by 
the Yokohama Specie Bank, Limited, a Japanese 
concern engaged in international exchange, and in 
similar lines; but T\ath the gold standard firmly estab- 
lished in Japan, there was no longer a reason for the 
employment of Chinese silver experts in that bank or 
in any foreign banking institution in Japan. 

There is also a commercial reason for the employ- 
ment of Chinese by the foreign (not Japanese) banks. 
According to commercial usage among the Chinese, 
the seller of a shipment of goods draws a clean bill 
of exchange upon the buyer, but not a document ar 3' 
bill, i. e., a bill of exchange with the shipping docu- 
ments attached. In other words, they do not hypoth- 



Morals and Moral Ideals 173 

ecate the goods to the bank as security for the draft. 
It is, therefore, difficult for the bank to determine 
whether a clean draft which they are about to negoti- 
ate is actually commercial paper or not. To be able 
to act intelligently on this point, and also as there is 
no Chinese mercantile agency that can supply the 
desired information regarding the financial standing 
of Chinese merchants, as is practised in Japan and 
elsewhere, it has been considered advantageous for 
the bank to employ a reliable Chinese whose influence 
and financial responsibility may be sufficient to safe- 
guard the interests of the banks. But, as I have 
stated before, the tendency to do away with any kind 
of middlemen, and to reach the objective directly 
and straight, seems to prevail also in this direction, 
and as far as Japan and Japanese institutions, whether 
banking or commercial, are concerned, there no longer 
exists any necessity for Chinese employment." 

We have stayed long enough in the bank — 
longer perhaps than we are warranted in doing. 
When business is merely a matter of yen and sen, 
it is quickly despatched — but a question of credit 
and morality necessitates more deliberate trans- 
actions. Bushido, which furnished the nation at 
large with the canons of right conduct, was origi- 
nally, as I have explained, intended only for the 
samurai, and the tradespeople were little thought 
of in its scheme, or, perhaps more accurately, 
the tradespeople little thought of it. The com- 
mon, every- day, democratic virtues of honest deal- 
ing, prudence, cheerfulness, diligence, were held 



174 THe Japanese Nation 

secondary to the higher virtues of patriotism, 
loyalty, friendship, benevolence, and rectitude. 

As the traditions of Bushido decline with the 
progress of democracy, hastened by the importa- 
tions of the "new school" of popular thought — 
Nietsche, Tolstoy, Ibsen, Bernard Shaw, and 
others, — the old system of teaching must go, but 
before any one of the new schools can obtain 
ascendancy (and I cannot believe that any one of 
them will, since acorns are much of the same size) 
the transition must somehow be passed through. 

As was the case during the French Revolution, 
when ethical theories were propounded and re- 
ligious systems galore were proposed, so in the intel- 
lectual revolution of modern Japan there has been 
no lack of scientific theorists and religion-mongers 
— all too eager to impose upon their countrymen 
the wares of their own making. As a general 
thing, the characteristic which runs through most 
of them is their appeal to patriotism. If they 
wish to arouse moral enthusiasm, they teach us to 
be upright, in order to be faithful subjects of His 
Majesty. If they desire us to grow in piety, we 
must increase our faith in the mission of our nation. 
Broad views of humanity, the recognition of a 
world-standard of right and wrong, the deepening 
of personal responsibility — irrespective of race or 
nation — are too often sadly lacking in the systems 
of ethics and in the religions proposed. Preposter- 
ous notions have been encouraged in the name of 
patriotism and loyalty. Their gospel gives an 



Morals and Moral Ideals 175 

impression that we are a special ethical creation 
with gifts peculiar to ourselves, and that we must, 
accordingly, be Japanese before we are men. 

Any claim to moral peculiarity — much less to 
moral perfection — ^by any people, will be found 
futile. The Volkergedanken theory has been tried 
as a working hypothesis but found wanting. 
Human nature is much the same everywhere, and 
it is this one touch that makes ''the whole world 
kin." There are no exotics in the domain of 
ethics. Propriety and impropriety may be cli- 
matic products like the colour of the skin, but 
right and wrong are concepts above the pale of 
meteorology. Social usages may vary with geo- 
graphical limits, like the food we eat ; but good and 
evil are not bound by them. The historical devel- 
opment of each nation has imposed modifications 
upon the outward manifestations of moral ideas, 
but they remain in their essence identical through- 
out the world, and eternal. At present, as never 
before, is universal standardisation displacing local- 
ism and nationalism, in every higher sphere of 
human activity. If in manners and customs, if in 
language and art, if in forms of government and 
society. East is East and West is West, moral law 
has no respect for points of the compass, demand- 
ing of both hemispheres equal obedience. As said 
an ancient writer: 

** The world in all doth but two nations bear, — 
The good and bad, and these mixed everywhere." 



CHAPTER VII 

EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS 

AS far as our system of education is concerned, 
it was founded on an elaborate basis as early 
as the eighth century, at the time when Buddhist 
and Confucian influences were fresh and vigor- 
ous. You can see from the date that it antedated 
Charlemagne's Ordinance of Education by nearly 
a century, and the founding of Oxford by nearly 
two hundred years. 

How far the system was put in practice, it is not 
easy to say definitely. But judging by so many 
Chinese schemes that are beautifully conceived 
without hope of being born, one is inclined to 
imagine that the schools and universities largely 
remained on paper. Perhaps this is too severe a 
charge, since we are told of magnificent academic 
halls and of learned men who bore high-sounding 
titles. We will at least give credit to our fore- 
fathers, however, for their noble idea; for, after 
all, ideas are seeds — as long as they do not lose 
their vitality. 

The history of education, like the life-history 

176 



Edxjcation and Educational Problems 177 

of a plant, has its seasons of feebleness and of 
strength, of retrogression and of development. 
Under unfavourable conditions it simply remains 
buried, biding the time to germinate. Was it not 
so in Europe? I make this commonplace remark 
in order that we may remind ourselves how unfair 
is the saying that Asia is a land of arrested growth, 
that all great ideas seem there to be applied and 
carried up to a certain point and are then stopped. 
Who knows whether the seed that lay dormant 
for a season or two — and some seeds retain vitality 
for decades and centuries — ^was killed? An idea 
once conceived is indeed the hardest thing to slay. 
You beat it, and with each stroke it waxes stronger. 
You suppress it, and every pound of pressure 
helps to make it more buoyant. Only a forgotten 
idea weakens. Who can tell whether Asia's ideas, 
apparently long forgotten and weakened, may not 
still rise again — not, I hope, like hordes of Huns 
and Tartars to devastate mankind, but to fructify 
the earth hand in hand with European ideas. It 
seems to me that, in the providence of the Al- 
mighty, the Asiatic seed was made to wait until 
the European should catch up. Youth takes 
count of time in days, age in years. A cycle of 
Old Cathay is even as long as half a century of 
Europe. The plodding patience of the East is to 
be admired no less than the swift energy of the 
West. When the two meet, we may see some 
result — a result now beginning to be visible (par- 
don my egotism!) in the education of Japan. 

12 



17^ XHe Japanese Nation 

The educational idea conceived of Buddhism 
and Confucianism in the Nara period, seemed for 
some time to give signs of vigour; then it was 
buried under a mass of other interests and for 
centuries practically forgotten. It was remem- 
bered and forgotten at odd intervals, and barely 
kept up a semblance of vitality in monasteries 
during the turbulent period of what I called the 
Late Mediaeval Age. Only as peace was restored 
and maintained under the Tokugawas d d educa- 
tion come to receive its share of attention. The 
Seido (the Temple of the Sages), in Tokyo, and 
a number of local institutions of higher learning 
maintained by the munificence of the daimyos, < 
were an embodiment of the earliest ideas of educa- 
tion. All these institutions laid stress only on the 
study of Chinese literature and Chinese history. 
Their aim was cultural and literary. The method 
pursued was largely memorising and interpreta- 
tion of the classics, made more or less lively by 
disputation among students. The object was 
mainly to train men for the service of the State, 
and hence it was almost entirely confined to the 
higher classes. As to the lower orders of society, 
upon the Buddhist priests devolved the duty of 
imparting elementary knowledge, though they did 
not monopolise it. 

Old samurai who had retired from active ser- 
vice, very often opened a school. To give ^a 
concrete example, I myself used to attend such a 
primitive school, which consisted of a couple 



Edxjcation and Ediacational Problems 179 

of rooms where some twenty or thirty boys (and 
a very few girls), ranging in age from seven 
to fourteen, spent the forenoon, each reading in 
turn with the teacher for half an hour, some para- 
graphs from Confucius and Mencius, and devot- 
ing the rest of the time to caligraphy. Of the three 
R's, 'riting demanded most time and reading but 
little, 'rithmetic scarcely any, except in a school 
attended by children of the common people as 
distinct from those of the samurai. Sons of the 
samurai class had other curricula than the three 
R's. They began fencing, jiujutsu, spear-practice, 
and horsemanship, when quite young, and usually 
took these lessons in the early morning. As a child 
of seven, I remember being roused by my mother 
before dawn in the winter and reluctantly, often 
in positively bad humour, picking my way bare- 
footed through the snow. The idea was to accus- 
tom children to hardihood and endurance. There 
was little fun in the school-room, except such as 
our ingenious minds devised behind our teacher's 
back. With Puritanic austerity were children 
treated — ^not like children but like men. How 
could they be expected to grasp the Confucian 
category of virtues! They just read and recited 
by rote — with less comprehension than boys and 
girls here learn Biblical texts. What effect such 
mental training must have on the mind, I leave to 
psychologists to discuss. This much is certain, 
that we grew up with no idea of physical or 
natural science, no idea of mathematics, except 



i8o THe Japanese Nation 

the first four rules, no idea of geography — if I were 
to go on enumerating the many things nowadays 
taught in elementary schools we did not learn, 
I should have to give the entire list — and thus is 
evident the weakness of our old pedagogic scheme. 
Its advantages over the modern system lay in its 
cultural value, in its alliance with daily conduct, 
in its solemn deontology — ^in one word, in its 
character-building aspect. 

I would by no persuasion exchange the present 
system for the old; but let us do honour to the 
latter for its efficiency in making the men who so 
wonderfully paved the way for the former. Only 
men unselfish in character, strong in conviction, 
and far-seeing in intellect, could have done what 
they did in leading a nation of thirty -five millions 
from mediaeval darkness toward the light of the 
promised land. The nation has been on this jour- 
ney over forty years, and if we have not been 
seriously lost in the desert, we have had to en- 
counter the Ammonites, Hittites, and other giants 
during the march. 

Let me now relate how we first made our exodus. 

When the present Emperor, on the occasion of 
his accession to the throne, announced his charter 
oath of five articles, he made it clear that enlight- 
ened democracy was to be the great aim of his 
reign, and that this could be secured only by diffu- 
sion of intelligence. Men trained under the old 
regime were able, wise, and noble ; but they did not 
know "things new and Western. " They had wis- 



Edxjcation and Cdvicational Problems i8i 

dom, but not knowledge. They did away with 
the shogunacy and with feudalism, but what should 
they give instead? 

A comparatively small quantity of new wine so 
effervesced in the old wine-skin that it burst, and 
then came the question, "Where and how can 
we get a new wine-skin?" "At the same time," 
they said, "let us renew the wine itself. " There- 
fore, in the first years of this new era, a plan for 
universal education was drafted, and as the new 
era was new in its conceptions and conditions, new 
ideas and new men were needed. 

The plan suggested at this exigency was virtu- 
ally a translation of the French educational system, 
which was naturally very soon found to be imprac- 
ticable without modification. While revision was 
under discussion, the epoch-making embassy of 
1 87 1 left Japan to pay a visit to the treaty Powers. 

Among the members of this embassy were two 
of the greatest men of modern Japan — Okubo and 
Kido. On their arrival in San Francisco nothing 
astonished them so much as the intelligence of 
the American people. Just at that time, some 
sort of election was going on. Our ambassadors 
noticed the widespread excitement, but could not 
believe that the hotel employes, waiters, and bell- 
boys, really knew what they were doing at the 
polls. A few questions put to these men, however, 
very soon showed that they knew what they were 
talking about — why they were voting for this or 
for that candidate. This single experience was 



i82 THe Japanese Nation 

enough to convince Okubo and Kido that only by 
education could new Japan stand erect and keep 
pace with the Western world. Deserving of men- 
tion, too, is the attitude of these two men as 
regards the initiatory step to be taken in the cause 
of national education. Okubo said: "We must 
first educate leaders, train such young men as will 
fill high positions, and the rest will follow; or, if 
they do not follow, the leaders will pull them up. " 
Kido said: ''We must educate the masses; for 
unless the people are trained, they cannot follow 
their leaders, or if they follow, it will never do for 
them to follow blindly. " 

The inspiration which they incidentally received 
in San Francisco proved a pregnant factor in the 
progress of their country. In the cabinet, Kido 
took by preference the portfolio of the Depart- 
ment of Instruction, and though he soon after 
resigned, the work of general education steadily 
grew in influence and efliciency. 

The first draft of the law under discussion was 
nothing more than a translation of Napoleon's 
Law oj Education. That it could not work goes 
without saying. Revision after revision was at- 
tempted, imtil the whole code was given up. 
About this time American influences became 
pre -dominant through the employment by our 
government of Dr. David Murray and Professor 
M. M. Scott. Then, too, popular interest in liberal 
education was aroused among our people through 
Spencer's work on education. But no definite step 



Edxjcation and Ediicational Problems 183 

towards radical reform or organised reconstruc- 
tion was undertaken until Viscount Mori assumed 
the task in 1885. An ardent admirer of Anglo- 
Saxon spirit and institutions, and a thorough 
student of the educational systems of the world, 
he was the one man fitted to do this, and it is 
'chiefly to him that we owe our present system. 

I shall begin with an outline of our primary in- 
struction, which, by the way, is more like that of 
America than of any other country. 

In the elementary schools, all the instruction 
imparted is in Japanese, and no foreign language 
is taught in them, if one excepts a few schools in 
large cities. The teachers are usually of both 
sexes. Over one hundred and forty -four thousand 
teachers (nearly forty thousand being women) are 
engaged in the schools, which are attended by 
about six million pupils. The proportion of child- 
ren in attendance to the total number of children 
of school-age is 98.8 per cent, for boys and 97.2 per 
cent, for girls — a remarkably high percentage, which 
can bear comparison with that of any country. 
But the attendance of school is not an unerring 
criterion of educational efficiency, though it shows 
that the law of compulsory and universal education 
is well enforced. It gives no clue to the quality 
of instruction. Of course, among such large num- 
bers there are many who are sent to school just a 
sufficient number of hours or days to conform to 
the letter of the law, and are engaged part of the 
year in swelling the army of child labourers. As 



i84 XKe Japanese Nation 

to the effect of instruction obtained in schools, its 
value is greatly diminished by the use of Chinese 
characters. Children, during the eight years of 
their elementary schooling, are expected to master 
some two thousand of these characters — most of 
which they will not use frequently and which will 
naturally slip out of their memory in a short time. 
It is no wonder that by the time boys are called 
for army conscription at the age of twenty, many 
of them have forgotten the more complex charac- 
ters. With all the drawbacks, inherent not so 
much in our educational system as in the language 
itself, our primary education — ^which, by the way, 
was largely modified after the American and later 
after the Belgian pattern, but now so changed 
from either that it may be called genuinely Japan- 
ese — ^is quite satisfactory. Teachers in these 
schools, in spite of a mere pittance of salary (a 
monthly average of sixteen yen), keep pretty well 
up-to-date by their attendance of summer schools, 
and their connection with educational societies. 
They are respected in the communities in which 
they live. On the whole, her primary education 
is a feature of which modern Japan has reason to 
be proud. 

The same cannot be said of our secondary 
schools, corresponding to your high schools. These 
receive the children who have finished their pri- 
mary education; but as there is no co-education 
(except in the elementary grades already men- 
tioned), separate institutions are provided — those 



Education and Educational Problems 185 

for boys being called Chugakko, Middle Schools, 
and those for girls, High Schools. Of this grade, 
there are three hundred schools for boys (118,000 
in number), and one hundred and eighty for girls 
(52,000). They vary in capacity, seating from 
tvN^o hundred and fifty to four hundred, exceeding 
this last number only in exceptional cases. 

In conformity with the *'good-wife-and-wise- 
mother " principle of female education, the Govern- 
ment offers to young women very few opportunities 
for higher education than that afforded in high 
schools and normal schools. There are Normal 
Colleges for women; but, as their name indi- 
cates, they are for a very definite purpose. The 
Academy of Fine Arts and the Conservatory of 
Music are naturally open to both sexes. A curious 
fact, hard to account for in so progressive a Gov- 
ernment as ours, is the chronic reluctance it has 
shown toward the higher education of women. Its 
function in this respect seems to have been con- 
fined to a tardy recognition of work done by pri- 
vate enterprise. At present, therefore, there are 
private institutions of excellent reputation — the 
so-called "Women's University" under Mr. Nar- 
use. Miss Tsuda's English School, two or three 
well-equipped seminaries under missionary man- 
agement — doing work such as the Government 
has failed to make possible by its own initiative 
and on its own responsibility. 

A large majority of middle schools is main- 
tained by local bodies — ^prefectural or municipal. 



i86 THe Japanese Nation 

Whereas in elementary education, which is com- 
pulsory, no tuition is charged unless otherwise 
decided by the local bodies, and in no case exceeds 
five sen a month in the rural and ten sen in the 
municipal schools, the secondary schools charge 
usually about three yen a month. When there are 
dormitories, room and board cost about six to 
eight yen a month. The course of studies pre- 
scribed for intermediate education covers much 
the same ground as it does in this country with 
this difference — that no Greek or Latin is taught, 
nor is German or French. The cultural equivalents 
to your dead languages are Chinese and Yamato 
(old Japanese) . English occupies the most promi- 
nent part in the curriculum, and as six hours a 
week are devoted to it during the entire course 
of five years, by the time boys finish the middle 
schools they have a fair reading knowledge of it, 
for they will have read as text-books such works 
as Gray's Elegy, Dickens's Tale of Two Cities and 
Christmas Carol, Irving's Sketch Book, Smiles's 
Character, Franklin's Autobiography. Their Eng- 
lish is for reading and not for colloquial purposes. 
Thus, almost any one of any education can un- 
derstand some English, even if he cannot follow a 
conversation and much less take part in it. In 
commercial schools, more ''practical" English is 
taught. 

It is through the channels of the English lan- 
guage that Anglo-Saxon ideas exert a tremendous 
influence intellectually, morally, politically, and 



Edxication and Ed\icational Problems 187 

socially. In this way are the great leaders of 
English thought made familiar to us, and being 
constantly quoted they are perused both in the 
original and in translations. Several works of 
Shakespeare can now be read in Japanese ; Bacon, 
Emerson, George Eliot, Poe, Stevenson, Long- 
fellow, Wordsworth, Tennyson, are names on the 
lips of every one. 

English does not occupy the same prominence 
in girls' high schools, except in such institutions as 
are under the auspices of Christian missions. A 
feature of girls' schools that may attract curious 
attention from outsiders as being unique, if not 
odd, is the course in etiquette, including ceremo- 
nial tea and flower arrangement. I have no time 
to go into their elaborate proceedings, and to 
an American a mere description of them would 
be tedious enough; but so much importance is 
attached to them in our pedagogical scheme that 
they are invariably taught. For this purpose 
every girls' school has a special building in Japan- 
ese style, with a room which may be called ''a 
laboratory of manners." In all modem schools, 
children sit on benches ; but at home they have to 
sit down a lajaponaise with their limbs bent under 
them — whence the necessity of a special etiquette 
room. To avoid possible misunderstanding allow 
me a moment's digression. 

The concocting and drinking of tea — tea-ism, 
shall I call it? — has long been elevated to the 
dignity of a fine art, an art of social intercourse. 



i88 THe Japanese Nation 

Its votaries even go so far as to regard it with 
almost religious devotion. It has created canons of 
propriety and beauty. We speak of one who lacks 
refinement and taste as one who has "no tea" in 
him — " a-tea-istic. " We speak of a rash, irra- 
tional action as mU'Cha^ ''un-tea-ful" or ** tea- 
less, " and, conversely, of a quiet, sedate, unworldly 
man as cha-jin, '*tea-ist. '* A future philologist 
may write a dissertation on the etymology of taste 
and tea-ist, or of Theism and Tea-ism ! One of 
our best writers, in dramatising Les Miserables, 
japanised all its characters, and in doing so, the 
nearest approach of which he could conceive to 
Bishop Myriel was a tea-ist. Strange that tea 
should purify taste, that the austere simplicity — 
verging on asceticism — of ceremonial tea-drinking 
should dictate rules of aesthetic conduct! and yet 
that this is the case will account for the general 
quiet and Quaker-like sobriety of our taste, the 
absence of bright colours in our costume, and the 
severe plainness of our parlours. 

In finishing my comments on the secondary 
school, I have lingered long enough over the tea- 
cups; for young boys have no fancy for it, and 
even after matriculating in institutions of higher 
learning, they remain un-tea-ful. As a matter of 
fact, graduates of secondary schools cannot afford 
money or time for cha-no-yu. Life is too stren- 
uous for them. They cannot get out of the 
world; they must prepare themselves to plunge 
into it. A large number find it impossible to con- 



Edvication and Cd\icational Problems 189 

tinue their education further. For those who can, 
there is a Rubicon to cross ; for the great question 
must be decided, — ''Shall I seek the highest that 
Japan can offer (namely, the university), or, 
shall I choose the next best (namely, technical 
schools or private institutions for medical or legal 
study)? He who decides upon the latter course 
has comparatively little difficulty in continuing 
his studies, but he who aspires to a university 
education must first enter the so-called Koto- 
Gakko, Higher Schools or National Colleges, whose 
standing is about the same as that of a good 
American undergraduate collegiate course or of 
the German Gymnasium. 

According to the law on education, a certificate 
testifying to the completion of the middle-school 
course entitles its holder to enter these colleges 
without examination. But as there are only eight 
of them in the country, they cannot take in all 
who apply for admission. Hence a rigorous en- 
trance examination is required. The college in 
Tokyo is the oldest and largest, and has had a 
history that makes every youth ambitious to enter 
it. It has over one thousand students, and every 
year can admit about three hundred freshmen, 
but the applicants always exceed this number by 
about seven or eight times. It is a very touching 
sight to watch some two thousand boys, the pick 
of our youth from all parts of the Empire, flocking 
to the college for examination — to watch them at 
their heavy task, all the time knowing that seven 



IQO THe Japanese Nation 

out of every eight will be disappointed. Those 
who fail one year can try again ; a great many do 
try three or four times, and in exceptional cases 
seven or eight times, one instance of perseverance 
being on record, where success crowned the four- 
teenth attempt! 

I believe there is nothing that chills the genial 
current of the youthful soul more than the inade- 
quate number of collegiate institutions in our 
country. Thousands of young men in the most 
ardent and aspiring period of life, feel the very 
door of hope slammed in their face! Their sole 
consolation lies in the healing power of youth 
itself. Inability to accommodate all who are 
desirous to pursue higher studies, is not by any 
means confined to the Koto-Gakko. Each year 
sees Government institutions — Commercial Col- 
lege, Naval Academy, School for Foreign Lan- 
guages, School of Navigation, Academy of Fine 
Arts, Conservatory of Music, Institute of Tech- 
nology, etc., — overcrowded with applicants for 
admission. It hurts me to confess how sadly our 
Government fails to meet the educational demands 
of young Japan. 

The average age of those who come to the Koto- 
Gakko is between eighteen and nineteen. They 
stay three years, during which their time is mostly 
taken up with foreign languages — English and 
German — a few of them, however, taking French. 
Here again no dead languages are taught except 
to those who expect to take up medicine or law — ■ 



Ed\ication and Edxicational Problems 191 

the amount required being homoeopathic in quan- 
tity, just about enough to read prescriptions or to 
understand technical terms in Pandects. Fortu- 
nately for those who finish their studies in the 
colleges, the universities admit them without ex- 
amination, except such faculties in the University 
of Tokyo as have more candidates than can be 
accommodated. 

There are four Imperial universities, of which 
the one in Tokyo is the oldest and most complete, 
being possessed of six faculties — Law, Medicine, 
Literature, Science, Engineering, and Agriculture. 
The University of Kyoto has four faculties — Law, 
Medicine, Literature, Science and Engineering, 
the last two being merged into one. The other two 
universities are still too new to be complete. One 
of them is in the south, at Fukuoka in Kyushu, 
and has Medical and Engineering faculties. The 
other in the north, has a well-equipped Agricul- 
tural faculty at Sapporo in Hokkaido, and a 
Science department in Sendai. 

The university course varies in length from three 
to four years according to the faculty. The lect- 
ures are given in Japanese, though a few foreign 
professors (about a half dozen in number) lecture 
in English or French or German. The number of 
students in the University of Tokyo is about six 
thousand, that of Kyoto some two thousand. The 
courses of study are very much as in other coun- 
tries, and we think the standard is equally high. 
Perhaps we have carried further than other coun- 



192 THe Japanese Nation 

tries one branch of study — Seismology, or Seismog 
raphy — the Science of Earthquakes, for which w( 
have no lack of raw material. 

The academic atmosphere is ^^ ganz Deutsch"— 
barring Mensur und Kneipe, and alas, minu 
Gemuthlichkeit. Our students are on the whoL 
exceedingly studious in their habits- — I dare sa] 
too studious; and though they might enjoy th 
pleasures of the German students, they have no 
the English and American zest for sports. Thei 
most popular exercises are fencing and jiujutsu 
neither of which, however, arouses such enthusi 
asm as do the imported games of baseball anc 
boat-racing. The two private universities of Kei( 
and Waseda send their teams now and then to thi 
country. 

As for fraternities or any other secret organisa 
tions, they are quite unknown among our students 
There are no purer democracies than our institu 
tions of learning. Distinction lies only in brains 
Family pride is not tolerated ; any show of wealtl 
is despised; snobbishness is scorned. In a dor 
mitory, for instance, a millionaire's son woul( 
never think of decorating his room. If a bo] 
should come in a carriage, he would be looke( 
upon with contempt. To be a shosei (student), i 
to be plain in habit and in taste. To be poor o: 
to be careless of social conventionality is describee 
by the word shosei-like. Dandyism is a heinou 
offence in the society of learning. This identifica 
tion of simple habits with study, of plain livinj 



Ediacation and Educational Problems 193 

with high thinking, has come down as a tradition, 
and still exercises a wholesome effect upon the 
young. It will not be out of place to mention 
here a practice generally in vogue among the 
nobility and the wealthy class. To protect their 
children from the enervating influence of wealth 
and rank, to shield them from being spoiled by 
their caressing grandmothers, or by a train of 
flattering servants, a small, unpretentious estab- 
lishment is provided for boys to live in with their 
tutor and a small company of select young men 
— perhaps class-mates of the boys and some older 
and more advanced students. Here they all 
share the same simple diet, such as they might 
get in ordinary boarding-houses or dormitories. 
The boys are allowed to visit their parents once or 
twice a week. This Lacedaemonian treatment, if 
it is hard on the boys as well as on the parents, 
especially on the mothers, has proved quite effica- 
cious. I have myself witnessed admirable results 
accruing from it. Moreover, friendship — which is 
often a notably strong bond between our youths — 
formed under these conditions, is deep and lasting as 
love. I have spoken of our training as masculine. 
An extension of the same system is also not at 
all uncommon. Men, usually teachers in active 
service or in retirement, offer to take a limited 
number — varying from half-a-dozen to fifty odd 
boys — ^under their own roofs, conversing with 
them at meal-time or spending some hours with 
them daily. In jiuku, as such a system is called, 

13 



194 XHe Japanese Nation 

boys pay their own board and possibly a small 
sum for rent, but the fundamental idea is to live 
under the guidance of superior men. 

It is a still more common custom for a man who 
can afford to do so (had I time I could give most 
touching examples of men of small means, such as 
school teachers and officials with a monthly salary 
no larger than thirty or forty yen) to offer a home 
to well-deserving students and take them in as 
members of his family. Such students are called 
shokkaku, ''table-guests. " A man of more or less 
prominence usually has several such in his house. 
I number among my own friends some who have 
no other hobby than that of helping poor students. 
No charge is made for their food and room ; but 
they usually requite the kindness done them by 
little services, clerical or domestic, or, when there 
are children in the family, tutorial. Far from 
being parasitic, such an arrangement corresponds 
to what the biologists speak of as symbiotic. 
"House Communism" of this kind is but seldom 
detrimental to the family life of the patron or to 
the character of the clientele. Among those who 
now fill prominent positions in business circles or 
in public service, are many who spent their student 
days as shokkaku. 

The expenses of university education amount 
to about four hundred yen for the whole year, 
inclusive of board, room, and books. This is a 
very respectable sum in Japan, where the cost of 
living is low, and it is an oft-mooted question 



Edxication and Edvicational Problems 195 

whether it pays to give a boy a university educa- 
tion, seeing that graduates usually begin their 
career at forty yen a month, and many of them 
obtain positions with difficulty. Still a university 
diploma goes a long way in the struggle for life, 
so much so that it is the ambition of all parents 
to see their sons in possession of it. I could tell 
you stories from actual life of the brave sacrifices 
made by mothers for the sake of their sons' edu- 
cation, or tales of abject despair on the part of 
young men who failed to enter college. Yet as 
far as privileges are concerned a diploma avails 
but little. If a graduate desire a Government 
position, he must pass a severe civil- service exami- 
nation. It is pitiful to see a promising boy beset ' 
all along his path by examinations. Just think 
of some exceptionally good schools taking children 
of twelve by "exam" into the higher grade of 
primary education, or of some middle schools, par- 
ticularly well known, requiring entrance "exams" 
of boys from fourteen to fifteen years of age. 
When entering college at eighteen or nineteen, the 
candidates have that awful examination of which 
I have spoken. If the course they wish to 
pursue in the university is crowded, they must 
take another examination. They leave the univer- 
sity at twenty-five or twenty-six, and after this 
they try the State examination for civil service. 
When I see the heart-rending as well as head- 
racking struggle, I am reminded of the dwarfing 
features of French life that Monsieur Desmoulins 



196 TKe Japanese Nation 

gives in his Anglo-Saxon Superiority. Yet, until 
we can devise some better system, we shall go on 
with the present ; for certainly there are many ad- 
vantages in it. Here again permit me to make a 
digression. By this series of "exams" the weaker 
minds are pretty thoroughly sifted out, and we 
can get the best in public service. Such young 
men, when they get their first appointment as 
clerks, receive, as I have said, about forty yen a 
month. If, instead of going into Government 
service, they should accept a place in a private 
corporation or firm, they can ordinarily command 
twice or three times as large a salary; but so 
honoured and so stable are Government positions 
that they would by far prefer them to more lucra- 
tive employment. This explains why paternalism 
and bureaucracy, carried as they are to a degree 
unbelievable in other countries, have not proved 
so onerous. It explains, too, why "socialism," 
so abhorred by officialdom, is really carried out in 
great measure by the State itself. I say this with 
no desire to defend bureaucracy. On the con- 
trary, its defects — ^particularly its red-tape — are 
intolerable; but the remedies for them are most 
likely to come from the official classes themselves. 
But I am afraid that our educational plan and 
the system of competitive examination for every 
advancement have very cramping effect upon 
intellect and character. The value of education 
comes to be measured by the facility it gives to 
the attainment of success in examinations. People 



Edxication and Edxjcational Problems 197 

study not for the sake of knowledge, but to 
"answer examination questions." The men who 
can write the best examination papers are heroes 
among students. There is Httle encouragement 
to enjoy knowledge for its own sake; for every 
effort is exerted to cram. The opinions of mem- 
bers of the examining bodies are repeated, even 
when they may not be accepted. There is de- 
veloping what might be termed a science of 
examinations ; and as to an art of passing them 
— this has already advanced far. Under these 
circumstances it would have been a dire national 
calamity if corruption had crept into the exam- 
ination system; but fortunately we are exempt 
from it — ^for the same reason that civil service 
takes the pick of our young men. It remains true, 
nevertheless, that cramming of mind means cramp- 
ing of character. 

My laudation of the personnel of our civil service 
implies the converse — that the worst do not come 
into civil service ; but it does not imply the obverse 
— that the best men never enter other than official 
careers. Some of our best minds have adopted for 
their life career engineering, mercantile business, 
legal professions, and journalism. As for acad- 
emic vocations, they are included in official callings, 
as all the principal institutions of the country 
are under governmental control. I ought to add, 
however, that there are in the country some im- 
portant private institutions of higher learning. 
Among the most famous are the Keio University, 



198 TKe Japanese Nation 

founded as early as the year 1867 by Fukuzawa, 
one of the wise makers of new Japan; the Do- 
shisha, organised by the illustrious Christian, 
Joseph Neeshima; the Waseda, established and 
still patronised by the well-known statesman, 
Count Okuma. Besides these, we have several 
private law schools which bear the name of uni- 
versity. One of the chief reasons why institu- 
tions of this grade are so eagerly sought, lies in 
the privilege accorded (provided they conform 
to the regulations relating .,to accommodations, 
teaching staff, etc.) to their matriculated students 
of postponing military service while pursuing their 
studies. 

From what has been said above, it may be seen 
that with us higher studies are pursued primarily 
for utilitarian purposes — to get positions, to earn 
bread. They are Brodwissenschaften. And it is 
this fact that strikes me as the lamentable feature 
of our present education. Culture, in a broad and 
lofty sense, is entirely neglected. In the univer- 
sities and in higher or technical schools, there is but 
little moral influence exerted in any form. Per- 
sonal intercourse between professors and students 
is as good as nil. During the collegiate period, 
students are most interested in moral problems; 
but ethics is chiefly studied as science — as some- 
thing to discuss and to dissect rather than to 
believe and to be lived up to. In the secondary 
schools moral discipline is very much more strin- 
gent. Here, as in all other institutions main- 



Edvication and Edlvicational Problems 199 

tained by public funds, religious teaching is care- 
fully excluded. It is given only in schools sup- 
ported by religious denominations, Buddhist or 
Christian. 

The absence of moral factors in our educational 
system is a matter of serious concern. In our 
haste to construct the nation on a new basis, the 
political and material institutions of the West were 
largely adopted, because we believed, rightly or 
wrongly, that it was in these that the West excel 
us. But in course of time, it became evident that 
without emphasising the moral side of life, material 
progress was fraught with more danger than is 
adherence to old traditions. Should we, then, re- 
trace our steps? Should we withdraw into the 
old shell? Some reactionary people began to raise 
their voices against Occident alisation. They ap- 
pealed to so-called patriotism — the cheap resort 
of the blusterer! — ^invoking the passions of the 
semi-educated in exhorting them to be true to the 
traditions of their fathers, calling advanced think- 
ers traitors to the highest heritage of the nation. 
This reaction, though wholesome in a small way, 
set back our progress by several years. In the 
meantime, young Japan was bewildered in its 
judgment as to moral issues. The old system 
of things which was as good as dead, reactionary 
chauvinism could not resurrect with all its yellow 
shrieks. The new construction period has not 
yet come. In the meantime shall or can the 
nation suspend its moral judgment? 



200 TKe Japanese Nation 

We are exceedingly fortunate in having for our 
ruler a man of unusual insight and power, who 
incorporates in his person the best intent of his 
subjects. Himself true to the noblest teachings of 
his race, doing his daily round of tasks under 
the dictates of a rigid discipline, our Emperor is 
in a position to give out a code of morals which 
fills a great educational need. In 1890, was issued 
what is known as the Imperial Rescript on Educa- 
tion. It is perhaps the only document that has 
been made public without the signature of his 
ministers, and a glance at the instrument will show 
that no cabinet minister could take upon himself 
the responsibility of enforcing the precepts stated 
therein. For instance, what minister could claim 
the power to make husband and wife live in har- 
mony! Here is a translation officially made, and 
I confess that no English rendering will do jus- 
tice to the dignity of the original. However, the 
general trend of the thought, if not the exact 
meaning of every clause, may be clear enough. 

THE IMPERIAL RESCRIPT ON EDUCATION 

Know Ye, Our Subjects: 

Our Imperial Ancestors have founded Our Empire 
on a basis broad and everlasting, and have deeply and 
firmly implanted virtue. Our subjects, ever united 
in loyalty and filial piety, have from generation to 
generation illustrated the beauty thereof. This is the 
glory and the fundamental character of Our Empire 
and herein also lies the source of Our education. Ye, 



Education and Edxicational Problems 201 

Our subjects, be filial to your parents, affectionate to 
your brothers and sisters; as husbands and wives be 
harmonious, as friends true; bear yourselves in mod- 
esty and moderation ; extend your benevolence to all ; 
pursue learning and cultivate the arts, and thereby de- 
velop intellectual faculties and perfect moral powers ; 
furthermore, advance public good and promote com- 
mon interests; always respect the Constitution and 
observe the laws; should emergency arise, offer your- 
selves courageously to the State ; and thus guard and 
maintain the prosperity of Our Imperial Throne, 
coeval with heaven and earth. So shall ye not only 
be Our good and faithful subjects, but render illus- 
trious the best traditions of your Forefathers. 

The way here set forth is indeed the teaching 
bequeathed by Our Imperial Ancestors to be observed 
alike by Their Descendants and the subjects, infallible 
for all ages and true in all places. It is Our wish to 
take it to heart in all reverence, in common with you, 
Our subjects, that we may all thus attain to the same 
virtue. 

The 30th day of the loth month of the 23rd year of 
Meiji 

(Imperial Sign Manual, Imperial Seal.) 

This document forms at present the basis of 
all moral teaching in schools. A printed copy 
with the Emperor's autograph, is kept as the 
sacred treasure of every educational institution. 
It is read with much ceremony on all state occa- 
sions. Text-books on ethics are usually com- 
mentaries on or expansions of it. You can see 
for yourselves what a comprehensive epitome of 



202 TTKe Japanese Nation 

moral duties it presents. Its very comprehensive- 
ness allows ample room for liberal interpretation. 
As explained and taught in schools, I have often 
wondered how nearly its usual exposition ap- 
proaches the original idea of the Emperor himself. 
There is certainly a demand for a more universal 
— and not exclusively national — exegesis of the 
Rescript. 

We must learn the fuller meaning of all the 
duties we have been wont to look upon as of solely 
worldly concern. Our loyalty must not end with 
our relations to our masters ; our truthfulness must 
not be limited to our dealings with our neighbours ; 
our benevolence must have no geographical limits. 
We are not merely subjects, but citizens, not only 
citizens of Japan but of the world-community. 
These are trite sayings ; but a strange superstition 
has for some years been current in our country, 
that we are a "peculiar" people, that our history 
is different from — by which of course is meant 
better than — that of other peoples, and that our 
ethical ideas are unique and superior. In these 
strains have the chauvinists been preaching the 
moral apartness of our people, and in this strange 
wise has the spectre of old insular isolation cropped 
out again. But ghosts vanish with the coming of 
the morning! 

As at the dawn of our pedagogic history, we 
sat at the feet of Hindu and Chinese sages, and 
as in course of time we imbibed their precepts and 
made of them the very fibre of our being ; as at the 



Edxjication and Edvicational Problems 203 

commencement of the present regime, we placed 
ourselves under the tutelage of European and 
American teachers, and then gradually assimilated 
their thought, — so, in the future, when the period 
of fruition shall have come, we should show forth 
what may rightly be expected of the intellect- 
ual welding of two hemispheres, of the spiritual 
wedding of the East and the West. 



CHAPTER VIII 

ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 

SO often has the saying, ''Man doth not live by 
bread alone," been repeated, that it has been 
assigned a place among platitudes. Nevertheless 
the trend of our age is toward an undiie emphasis 
of our physical wants. As a result, civilisation is 
measured largely by its success in fulfilling them; 
hence bread-winning has grown from a material 
necessity to a social, iron law. 

Its rigour is, however, relentless only in the 
field of daily need, relaxing as the requirements of 
our living ascend in scale from articles of necessity 
to those of decency, and from these again to the 
demands of comfort; and when they reach the 
domain of luxury, the so-called bread-winning 
ceases to be a law of life, but becomes in very 
truth a cause of death. 

Oriental teachers have always looked upon 
material well-being as a matter of subsidiary con- 
cern. They have taught more of life than of 
living. Mr Wrench in his recent work. The 
Mastery of Lije, has called the attention of the 

204. 



Economic Conditions 205 

West to the fact that it is too much absorbed in 
the means of Hfe, while the East tastes Hfe itself. 
You speak of ''Oriental luxury"; but is there not 
more of an Oriental flavour in that part of the 
Sermon on the Mount where the Master teaches : 
''Therefore I say unto you, Be not anxious for 
your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; 
nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is 
not the life more than food, and the body than 
raiment?" The pagan Orientals live more the 
life of "the birds of the heaven, which sow not, 
neither reap nor gather into barns, " or the life of 
the "lilies of the field," which, without toiling 
or spinning, grow and array themselves in the 
glory that Solomon could not surpass. Wealth, 
as such, has been discarded from all high thinking 
and high teaching. Privation was even courted 
among religious and literary men as a condition 
under which one can best work out one's salva- 
tion. Men in public life were expected not to 
look to filthy lucre for the reward of their service. 
An ancient saying runs, "When civil servants 
begin to covet riches and when military men begin 
to love life, then is the beginning of an end." 
Superiour men looked upon wealth as illth. 

Poverty was not considered a disgrace. We 
have an inelegant adage, Bushi wa kuwa-ne-do 
taka-yoji — "As to the samurai, though he eats not, 
he proudly picks his teeth, " — which is equivalent 
to saying "How far above creature-comforts soars 
the soul of the samurai!" There has thus been 



2o6 XHe Japanese Nation 

a general feeling that wealth is something un- 
worthy to be chased after. Food and raiment and 
shelter, and medicine in sickness, — and beyond 
these the simplest demands of propriety; more 
than this comet h of evil. 

If human happiness is the result obtained by 
dividing the good things of this life by our desires, 
our old masters taught us to increase the quotient 
not by increasing the numerator, or the supply of 
things, but by decreasing the denominator, our 
desires. Infinity can be procured, as Carlyle 
taught, by reducing our covetousness. i = cc. 

Economic activity was held ever subservient 
to human and humane purpose. Japanese thinkers 
of former days defined Political Economy much 
as Ruskin did, asserting that its main object is the 
production of souls of good quality. 

To teachings and feelings like these, is to be 
largely attributed the comparatively backward 
economic condition of Japan. Much of her dor- 
mant wealth was left undisturbed ; her virgin lands 
un tilled; her mines unexplored. I do not mean 
that our economic advancement was checked 
solely by our ideal view of life. There were other 
reasons for our slow progress; but above these 
reasons towers our mental attitude toward wealth. 
Make plain living honourable and display will 
take its flight to lodge among the tawdry; there 
will be less of a scramble for bread and for gold. 
Modem civilisation, however, does not tolerate 
old-time simplicity. Bread! Bread!! — sour or 



Economic Conditions 207 

sweet — leavened or unleavened — bread has become 
the first and last cry in this modern age. 

Owing to the onslaught of materialism upon 
Japan, the samurai has put away his sword, the 
statesman has taken up the abacus, and the new 
gospel of "a good living" has come in vogue. 
Callings hitherto despised have suddenly come to 
be honoured. Merchants have become nobles, 
shopkeepers have usurped such social positions as 
knights enjoyed before. With this mental and 
social transformation, the foremost energies of the 
nation rush into money-making channels. With 
a new value placed on the power of wealth, both 
among the people and in the esteem of one nation 
towards another, the moral concept of social pro- 
gress passes through a radical change. As wrote 
Shakespeare in King John; 

"Well, whiles I am a beggar, I will rail, 
And say — there is no sin, but to be rich; 
And being rich, my virtue then shall be. 
To say — -there is no vice but begging." 

The logic of this sad cynicism leads to the uni- 
versal adoption of a ''gold standard" for all con- 
cerns of life. As at the devil's booth, all things 
come to be sold or bartered for bread. Poverty, 
despicable in our industrial age, as it was in the 
religion of Mammonism, is the gravest of sins. 
Gauged by the physical standard, Japan certainly 
stands low among the nations. 

It has been computed by competent statisticians 



2o8 XHe Japanese Nation 

that the entire wealth of Japan amounts to some 
24,000,000,000 yen, which will give at ten per cent, 
an annual income of 2,400,000,000 yen. This in 
turn gives per capita a yearly income of about 
forty-six yen (the population being 52,000,000). 
Out of this sum is to be paid 8.80 yen for taxes of 
various kinds, leaving to each citizen, irrespective 
of age or sex, an annual revenue of 37.20 yen or a 
monthly quota of 3.10. As a family consists on 
an average of five persons, its income is 15.50 yen 
per month. With this meagre sum, a household 
manages not only to sustain and to perpetuate 
itself but to lead a cheerful life. This absurdly 
low state of economic development does not pre- 
clude the existence of millionaires, nor does it by 
any means argue the prevalence of indigence. 
Wealth is comparatively evenly distributed, and 
the proletariat in the slums of Tokyo fare better 
than does the ''residuum" of New York, London, 
or Paris. In the most wretched hovels we rarely 
meet with the herding together of the sexes and 
of families. The clothing of our poor being cotton, 
it is oftener and more easily washed than the 
woollen garments of your paupers. Their food 
consisting largely of vegetables, putrefying grease 
does not scent the air. The struggle for life is 
bad enough, but has not reached the most acute 
stage, and luxury has not yet made victims of the 
unsophisticated peasants who form by far the 
largest proportion of our population. For though 
the urban population is increasing at a rapid rate 



Economic Conditions 209 

(twenty-five per cent, of our population living at 
present in towns of over ten thousand inhabitants) 
the bulk of our people are still engaged in rural 
pursuits, and agriculture is as yet our principal 
industry. 

Whether considered as a food-producing occu- 
pation or as man -producing — inasmuch as no other 
vocation is more conducive to health and charac- 
ter, — agriculture has always been held in high 
esteem. In former days, the social classes were 
ranked, according to their callings, as samurai 
(knights or gentlemen), as tillers of the soil, as 
artisans, and as tradesmen. This recognition of 
the status of the peasantry is not to be wondered 
at when one remembers that Japan was, until 
forty years ago, what Thuenen calls an "Isolated 
State," her whole economic life being based on 
the principle of self-sufficiency and her political 
philosophy being physiocratic. Let me describe 
our system of husbandry. 

Japan proper, which I single out as best repre- 
senting our national life, — i. e., Japan exclusive of 
her colonial acquisitions in Formosa, Korea, and 
Saghalien, — embraces an area of about 95,000,000 
acres, of which the highest estimate rates some 
fourteen per cent., or 14,000,000 acres, as arable. 
The rest, or about eighty-six per cent., lies waste, 
or, if not strictly waste, waste as far as food-pro- 
ducing is concerned. No civilised country in the 
world has so small a proportion of agricultural 
land. If all these cultivated acres were put to- 

X4 



210 TKe Japanese Nation 

gether into one big farm, and if you were to ride 
in an automobile at the speed of fifty miles an 
hour, you would be able to skirt the entire centre 
perimeter in less than twelve hours. 

Yet from this limited area our peasants produce 
enough to feed and clothe themselves and the 
nation, and to furnish more than half the silk 
worn by American ladies. 

It is evident that our agricultural method must 
be very intensive, intensive in the double sense of 
the liberal use of capital and labour, though, as 
we shall see, the intensivity is largely that of 
labour. Regarding the capitalistic side of our 
farming, it consists almost exclusively of the use of 
fertilisers and of water for irrigation. Possessed 
of scarcely any capital in the form of cash, the 
farmers know how to make the best use of water 
for irrigation and of the last scrap of refuse for 
fertilisation. 

Poor as the peasants are, they apply yearly 
85,000,000 yen worth of fertilisers, of which 
20,000,000 yen are expended for imported fertil- 
isers. A great French agriculturist, Monsieur 
Gasparin, has remarked that agriculture reaches 
its highest development, which he calls culture 
heterositique, when it is forced to depend upon 
imported fertilisers for its successful operations. 
Our peasants have long practised rotation of crops 
and the renovation of soil by the cultivation of 
leguminous plants — of course empirically, having 
had no scientific knowledge of their usefulness. 



Economic Conditions 211 

One of the beautiful sights which greets foreign 
travellers in Japan is that of fields or valleys 
covered with a little pinkish-purple vetch — often 
called by them ''Japanese clover." It has not 
been sown to please the eye, but merely to be 
ploughed under for manure. 

Though Dean Swift's fame did not rest upon 
truth- telling, I believe the reverend gentleman's 
words may be taken literally, when he says that 
*'he who makes two blades of grass grow where 
one grew before, is the true benefactor of man- 
kind. " In this sense our peasant deserves the 
highest niche in our shrine of gratitude. 

I have at home a small brass image of a peasant 
in his straw rain-coat, holding in his hands a hat 
made of rushes. It is one of a number of images 
which a celebrated prince of Mito had made for 
the members of his household, and which he 
instructed them to place upon their trays (indi- 
vidual tables) at every meal, so that they might 
never forget the toil of those who provided them 
with food. 

With surprising diligence, combined with intel- 
ligence, our peasants make two blades of grass 
grow where one grew before. From one field they 
get three and sometimes four successive crops in 
a year. Hence, like a dime which when used ten 
times is worth a dollar, one of our acres yields as 
much as three or four acres in America. 

Our population of 52,000,000 (about one-half 
that of the United States) is thus fed and clothed 



212 THe Japanese Nation 

by the labour of over 30,000,000 people — nearly 
sixty per cent, of our population being engaged 
in agriculture. As these 30,000,000 farmers, in- 
cluding women and children (5,500,000 families), 
cultivate 14,000,000 acres, it is evident that two 
farmers are occupied in tilling one acre of land, 
or, what amounts to the same thing, the pro- 
portion of arable land to the agricultural pop- 
ulation is no more than one-half acre per head. 

Seventy per cent, of the agricultural class own 
and cultivate farms of less than two and a half 
acres. Twelve acres are considered a very re- 
spectable holding. By assiduous labour an owner 
of such a lot can realise a goodly sum — say three 
or four hundred yen — after paying a heavy land 
tax of perhaps fifty yen, the rate of tax on agricul- 
tural land being 4.7 per cent, .on its assessed value, 
which is in turn calculated at ten times its annual 
rental. In a land of petite culture, an area of 
twenty-five acres entitles its owner to the position 
of a local magnate. 

You can easily understand that when land is so 
minutely divided, farming is carried on much as 
gardening, horticulture, and truck-farming are 
here. People work with their own hands with hoe 
and spade. Mr. Edwin Markham might well call 
them ''brother to the ox," were he to see them 
wading through mud in the heat of the day or 
turning the sod in the winter twilight. Animals 
are not altogether wanting. From of old, we have 
had horses, cattle, fowls, dogs, and pigs in limited 



Economic Conditions 213 

numbers. The sheep is a new creature to us, and 
flocks of them are still quite rare. Mutton chops 
are therefore a luxury! The horse is used for 
draught, but its flesh is seldom eaten. Here I might 
state that in recent years, since our wars with 
China and Russia, astounding improvement has 
been made in our cavalry mounts, and in horses 
generally, so that it is difficult nowadays to find 
a specimen of pure Japanese breed. This dis- 
appearance of a native breed is still more con- 
spicuous in the case of the canine family. The 
kind of dogs that I used to play with in childhood 
is entirely extinct, except in remote mountain 
districts. Dog-flesh was never eaten by us; and 
even pork, which is a favourite food among our 
neighbours, the Chinese, has not been much rel- 
ished. Chickens, eggs, and fish — most commonly 
salted herring, sole, sardine, salmon, or cod — 
furnish the principal meat supply of our diet. 

Now that I have inadvertently taken up the 
subject of diet, I may proceed with the standard 
of our living. Though rice is considered the staff 
of life in Japan, it is not freely indulged in by the 
peasants who raise it. The proper ration of rice 
per head is calculated to be one-and-a-half pints 
of the uncooked grain per day, though hard-work- 
ing labourers must have over one quart. The 
poorer people cannot afford to take unmixed rice; 
therefore they boil with it cheaper barley and 
millet. In some southern provinces, sweet pota- 
toes form the chief part of daily food. 



214 XHe Japanese Nation 

As rice requires for its cultivation land well 
irrigated, the prospective increase of paddy-fields 
in Japan is not likely to be very great. At the 
present rate of increase in population and of culti- 
vation, we shall reach the margin of rice-culture 
in some thirty years. Hence it is a grave question 
how long we as a people can depend on the mono- 
culture of rice. Already the recent enormoi^"^ rise 
in the price of this cereal indicates the necessity 
of a change in our dietary system. 

Besides the grains named, a large quantity of 
beans — the so called soy-bean — is used in various 
forms. Fermented beans in the form of soup 
constitute an essential part of the standard break- 
fast for rich and poor alike. Indeed beans largely 
supply the protein of our food, and without this 
nitrogenous element of their diet, our peasants 
declare they cannot work. Among vegetables, 
the most important is a huge radish, which we 
term daikon, and which is often two or three feet 
long and four inches in diameter. It is served 
pickled in salt or grated or boiled, and science has 
recently proved it to be rich in diastase — another 
example of the empiric use of an unknown 
principle, as our people long ago found that unless 
they ate daikon pickles with their rice they could 
not consume the latter daily without suffering 
from indigestion. Carrots, burdock, cucumbers, 
melons, potatoes (sweet and white), yams, taro, 
lotus-roots, cabbage, squashes, egg-plants, and 
mushrooms are freely eaten, while many dainty 



Economic Conditions ^ 215 

dishes unfamiliar to you are enjoyed, — such as 
the young fronds of the brake, the tender sprouts 
of the bamboo (taken just as they appear above 
the surface of the ground in the spring), and the 
bulb of the lily — the variety you know as the 
"tiger lily. " Now that we have seeds from Eng- 
land and America there is indeed scarcely a vege- 
table grown in these countries that we have not 
made our own. I am thinking now of tomatoes, 
Indian corn, asparagus, and celery, all of which are 
welcomed in Japanese cuisine. 

Wherever one is within reach of a city market, 
a good supply of fruit is obtainable — and here again 
the importation of foreign varieties is evidenced 
by the peach, the pear, and the apple, and by 
strawberries, gooseberries, and grapes, the indige- 
nous stocks being generally inferior. When we 
add to these our own delicious plums (not the 
ume) and many kinds of native oranges, our biwa, 
or loquat, and the luscious persimmon of the 
autumn, you will see that we do not suffer for lack 
of refreshing fruit. 

The ordinary beverage is tea — what Emerson 
calls the cordial of nations — of which there are 
grades ranging in price from five cents to five 
dollars a pound, so that the poor and the rich can 
take their choice. Black tea is of comparatively 
recent introduction and is but little used in Japan- 
ese households. When we simply speak of ''tea, " 
we mean our green tea, and by this is understood 
a natural or pure, and not a coloured, tea, as is 



2i6 TKe Japanese Nation 

so often mistakenly thought in this country, — 
the colour being due to the process of curing. 

The intoxicating drink of the country is sake, 
brewed from rice and quite strong in alcoholic 
content (fifteen or sixteen per cent.). Beer is 
imported as well as brewed in Japan. The same 
is true of wine, though a smaller quantity of this 
is consumed. I may add that drunkenness is not 
as apparent with us as it is in America, and that 
with us, as with you, there is a movement against 
all social drinking. 

A labouring man can get his food for about 
twenty sen^ a day, and he can feed his family 
(wife and a couple of children) on an additional 
thirty sen. In fact, if he makes eighty sen and his 
wife thirty sen, a sum total of a yen and ten sen 
a day, they can keep a little house with a couple 
of rooms, paying a rent of three yen per month, 
read newspapers (for the humblest can read), take 
daily baths (a racial necessity), send their child- 
ren to school (for education is compulsory), and 
put in the savings bank two or three yen a month. 
Does this sound delectably Arcadian? — and yet of 
families like these the duties of modern citizenship 
are demanded — viz., the payment of taxes, service 

^ The yen is the standard of our monetary system and in 
exchange is equal to about fifty cents in American money; but its 
purchasing value in Japan is practically equivalent to that of the 
dollar. You can readily see that it becomes only half as great 
in the purchase of imported goods. As in your currency one 
hundred cents make a dollar, so in ours one hundred sen m^ake 
one yen. 



Economic Conditions 217 

in the army, and attendance at school on the 
part of the children. 

In such a cursory review of Japanese economy 
as I am giving, there is little space for a discussion 
of our national finance. Suffice it to say that our 
taxation and debt have increased heavily since 
our war with Russia. The latter now amounts 
to about 2,650,000,000 yen, an increase of 2,100,- 
000,000 as compared with the debt prior to the 
war. This increase is roughly the price we have 
paid or are still paying for victory. Whereas the 
per capita debt of our people was less than eleven 
yen in 1904, it is now about forty yen. Our taxes 
were 150,000,000 yen before the war; now they are 
330,000,000. The chief sources of revenue are 
the taxes on liquors, land, and income. We get 
about 50,000,000 yen from the customs. A very 
important part of our revenue is derived from 
public undertakings and State property (about 
126,000,000 yen)y and from postal, telegraphic, and 
telephone service (about 50,000,000 yen) ; also from 
the profits of salt, camphor, and tobacco monopo- 
lies (about 50,000,000 yen). The total annual 
revenue of the Empire has lately been approxi- 
mating the sum of 560,000,000 yen. How can the 
people bear such taxation? Are they simply 
crushed, so that they cannot raise their voice? 

Heavy burdens of taxation and military service, 
without corresponding improvement in economic 
welfare and morals, may be fruitful of social dan- 
ger. We are aware of this. Fortunately, thus 



2i8 THe Japanese Nation 

far, our country has been free from proletariat 
revolts or labour trouble of any magnitude. Social- 
istic propaganda is feared, and only last year we 
had the saddening sight of a band of anarchists 
arrested and condemned on the charge of high 
treason. They were called sociaHsts, but not in 
the sense that our Government itself may be 
called State-socialistic — ^neither in the sense in 
which Professor Hart in his recent book, The 
Obvious Orient, says: ''Never was there such a 
socialistic community, such an ant-hill of human 
beings, busy, contented, and all interested in each 
other's affairs. Socialism," he adds, '4s realised 
in Japan.*' 

This blunder in designating the worst class of 
destructive anarchists "socialists," has done no 
little harm. The very term "socialism" has been 
dragged into ill repute, even when it is used in 
its noblest and most scientific sense, and has 
also given a false impression to the outside 
world regarding the justice of our courts in im- 
posing what was naturally thought to be excessive 
punishment. 

With the increasing concentration of population 
in cities, with the development of the modern mill 
system, labour questions will become more and 
more serious. Whether we can progress from our 
still prevailing feudalistic and artistic stage of 
economy to its modern form, without undergoing 
the throes of democratic upheavals, it is impossible 
to say. 



Bconomic Condlitioris 219 

In the meantime the population is growing 
rapidly. In 1907 it was 49,000,000. At present 
(1912) it is about 52,000,000. Fifty years hence 
it should reach the dignity of nine ciphers. Can 
the land support so many? Certainly more inten- 
sive agriculture will yield more food. With the 
rise of prices, the margin of cultivation will 
extend to land as yet entirely neglected. A rough 
estimate points to the possibility of doubling our 
present arable area. Another source of relief will 
come from emigration into our new dominions — 
Formosa, Saghalien, and Korea, and the leased 
territory of Manchuria. The success we have 
realised in the administration of Formosa will be 
recounted elsewhere. I will simply say that in 
eight years, under the guidance of the late Viscount 
Kodama as Governor- General and his colleague 
Baron Goto as Civil Governor, that island was 
brought from a state of wide-spread disturbance 
created by the bandits and of economic inefficiency, 
to a condition of stable government and self- 
supporting finance. Korea, despite some mistakes 
which every colonial power makes at first in dealing 
with a subjugated people, any impartial critic will 
admit, is now better governed than it ever was. 
We are bent upon making our rule there, economi- 
cally as well as politically, successful and praise- 
worthy. Since 1906 the Imperial treasury has 
spent nearly 200,000,000 yen in the tranquilisation 
of that peninsula, but it will not be long before 
the land will be made self-supporting financially. 



220 THe Japanese Nation 

and it will also afford homes for our overflowing 
population. Both Korea and Formosa can raise 
enough rice to feed the whole Japanese nation. 
They are both possessed of mineral resources — 
coal, oil, iron, gold — which await further develop- 
ment. Still another source of relief is destined to 
come from industries. We are driven into manu- 
facturing channels by force of circumstances. The 
time-honoured respect for agriculture must give 
way to the adoption of twentieth-century indus- 
tries. In the abundance of water, we are assured 
a cheap source of power ; in the growth of popula- 
tion, an ample supply of labour. Some nations 
are looking askance upon the industrialisation of 
Japan — slow as it is (how slow!) — and condemn it 
as another instance of " accursed Japanese compe- 
tition in the East." On the whole, however, the 
present commercial treaties do not lay any serious 
hindrance in the way of our progress, and if we 
cannot accelerate its speed, we must not blame 
others. How smoothly we can effect, in a few 
years, a transition which it has taken Europe 
several decades to accomplish, is just now a very 
grave social problem. 

While, by means of education in agriculture, of 
co-operative popular banks, of young men's as- 
sociations, of the consolidation of small, scattered 
plots into larger farms, of the construction of 
irrigation canals and roads, we 'are solving, in 
part, the vexed problems of country-life, at the 
same time by old-age pensions, compensation for 



Bconomic Conditions 221 

injuries in factories, universal insurance, and labour 
laws, we will try to mitigate the suffering of the 
transition. 

It is too early to predict with any approach to 
accuracy how far our new legislation and our 
effort to maintain the old moral relations between 
employer and the employe, between landlord and 
tenant, will avert the evil that has worked havoc 
in other lands. I am afraid, however, that our 
endeavour will not accomplish much, unless we 
take the question more seriously, and the reason 
why it is not more seriously discussed is because 
modern industry is still a new thing with us, 
whereas the older industries are largely of the 
nature of art-crafts, and labour as such plays but 
a subordinate part. 

A bare enumeration of our well-known indus- 
tries — such as pottery, cloisonne, embroidery, 
lacquer, ivory and wood-carving, inlaying and 
hammer-work — will be sufficient to show you 
that they are handwork executed by individuals. 

The arts and crafts are pursued not by mere 
artisans but by artists, and usually on a small scale, 
i. e. , under the direct control of the masters. You 
have heard of the porcelain-maker, Seifu. His 
workshop is his private house, where he and his 
family live and share with his half-dozen pupils 
food and lodging. You look in vain for large 
kilns; but see only two or three small ones under 
which the master himself may be building the fire. 
His products are not turned out en masse. Every 



222 TKe Japanese Nation 

imperfect article is discarded, and those that pass 
inspection bear his name and the impress of his 
personaHty. The same is true of the productions 
of other master workmen. Labour — especially 
mechanical labour and drudgery — ^forms only a 
small fraction of their exertion, and even in the 
execution of inferior artisans, labour is not de- 
graded into a mechanical process. It is for this 
artistic element of our manual work that Japanese 
manufacture is most admired by the West, and I 
assure you it will not be lost ; but will be kept up as 
a sacred inheritance of the race, in spite of com- 
mercial production on a large scale. Yet, of the 
rank and file of our handicraftsmen, it is not fair to 
demand, in this age of search for gold and struggle 
for bread, that they alone remain uncontaminated. 
We cannot ask martyrdom of others for our own 
enjoyment. 

As for manufacturing and other industrial enter- 
prises, I am glad to say these are growing steadily 
and on the whole sanely. Near the close of the 
war with China and of that with Russia, there were 
those usual indications of industrial expansion 
which always work disaster in the social econ- 
omy of a victorious nation. The Government, 
well aware that this danger was imminent, took 
every pains to prevent it by cautioning the public 
through the press, educating them in the general 
principles of post-helium finance by pointing to 
the experiences of other countries. Had it not 
been for this precaution, calamity might have 



l/conomic Conditions 223 

ensued in our business circles. As it was, we came 
out better, perhaps, than most of those nations who 
have passed through a similar experience. Natur- 
ally there was a sudden rise in industrial activity 
after each war, amounting to a boom, in 1907, but 
followed by two-and-a-half years of depression, 
after which normal conditions again prevailed. 

The field for financial investments during those 
years lay, and still largely lies, in banking, cotton 
mills, electric works, mines, fisheries, manufactures, 
and shipping, and also in smaller trades. 

Roughly, one may say some 400,000,000 yen 
represent the annual capital invested in the coun- 
try — equivalent perhaps to about one-eighth of 
the amount invested by the United States, a fourth 
or fifth of that of Great Britain, France, or Ger- 
many. Small as is our gross investment, if we com- 
pare it with the estimated wealth of the country — 
24,000,000,000 yen in round numbers — it forms 
over one and six-tenths per cent, as against one 
and four-tenths per cent, in the United States. 

Of our large industries, conducted in mills, I 
shall give three features which may strike you as 
different from yours: (i) the unfortunate absence 
of iron, (2) lack of skilled labour, (3) predomi- 
nance of female labour. 

As an indication of the insignificance of our iron 
industry, there is only one steel foundry in the 
whole country, and that managed at a loss by the 
Government. Of some 450,000 tons of pig-iron 
used in the country, two-thirds are imported. 



224 THe Japanese Nation 

Regarding skilled labour, factory-work being 
new to the people, we have not yet had time to 
train first-rate operatives. Compared with the 
output, experience in shipyards, arsenals, and steel 
foundries shows that it takes two or three Japanese 
to do the work of one European in a European 
factory. Careful experiments in cotton mills have 
shown that three hundred Japanese operatives are 
required where two hundred English are sufficient, 
and where one hundred Americans do the same 
work. As yet, there seems to be no immediate 
fear of an industrial Yellow Peril ! 

As respects female labour, its efficiency as com- 
pared with that of Western countries is very much 
in our favour. Especially is this true in the case 
of silk-culture, silk-reeling, weaving, tea-picking, 
straw-braiding, etc. Among some 10,500 facto- 
ries employing not less than ten operatives each, 
thirty-eight per cent, of the employes are males, 
the remaining sixty-two per cent, are women. 
These operatives constitute an industrial army of 
eight hundred thousand, of which five hundred 
thousand are of the weaker sex. 

Child labour is disproportionately large. In 
some mills twenty per cent, of the labour is done 
by children under fourteen years of age, but this 
is an extreme case, though the proportion of five 
per cent, is not unusual. In some kinds of work, 
infants under ten years of age are employed. 
Though as many as ninety-eight per cent, of the 
children of school age (six to fourteen years) are. 



Economic Conditions 225 

actually attending schools, a considerable portion 
of these do so just long enough to follow the 
letter of the compulsory education law, coming to 
school the minimum number of hours. 

The conditions of labour in the factories are far 
from satisfactory — ^in many of them they are posi- 
tively disgraceful. Here, again, the Government 
has made quite a careful study of the question 
and has repeatedly submitted to the Parliament 
a draft of factory legislation. Only last winter 
(191 1 ) a law was enacted, with emendations, how- 
ever, which waive some vital provisions. It was 
thought by the legislators that a rigid enforcement 
of a stringent factory law might kill our infant 
industries; for, be it remembered, our industrial 
system is about a century behind that of England. 
The spirit of the said law is gradually to prepare 
our industries during the coming fifteen years, for 
the complete adoption of all the requirements of 
hygiene and education. Any seed of reform, how- 
ever, is better than no seed, and this enactment 
will lead to closer inspection and encourage further 
improvement in our mills. As the new law forbids 
the employment of children under nine in factories, 
and the working of women at night, a starting 
point is provided for a better condition of things. 

Industrial progress is so intimately connected 
with foreign trade that, without understanding the 
state of the one, it is impossible to comprehend that 
of the other. A generation ago (1876), our total 
foreign trade (exports and imports together) was 

IS 



226 THe Japanese Nation 

slightly over 50,000,000 yen, or one and one-half 
yen per head of population, and by 19 10 it had 
risen to over 922,000,000 or over eighteen yen per 
capita. Of late the amount of imports has been 
steadily exceeding that of exports, owing to large 
purchases made abroad during the war. The 
excess of imports, necessitating the payment of the 
balance in gold, together with the need of sending 
about seventy-eight millions as interest on our 
foreign loans — ^public, municipal, and company — 
has been draining the country of gold specie, and 
one of the most serious questions with which we 
must cope is how to make good its possible de- 
ficiency in the near future. 

When the country was opened to foreign trade, 
sixty years ago, it was naturally carried on en- 
tirely by foreigners. That tradition lasted long 
enough, and so of late years, in the natural course 
of development, the Japanese have been gradually 
taking the export and import trade into their own 
hands, — much to the chagrin of those who were 
accustomed to look upon it as their prerogative. 
Whereas, in 1906, forty-six per cent, of the foreign 
trade was transacted by the Japanese themselves, 
in 1 9 10 the proportion rose to fifty-four per cent., 
and every year will and must see its progres- 
sion. We think it only proper to designate this 
progress, but in the Enghsh language, which 
is in current use among foreign merchants in 
Japan, it is described as "the Japs stealing our 
business, " — a curious use of the verb unknown to 



Economic Conditions 227 

Johnson or even Webster when they wrote their 
dictionaries. 

To return from etymology to commerce, the 
chief articles of import are cotton and wool, iron 
and steel, sugar, grain, machinery, chemicals, and 
oils. The United States supply us with nearly 
all of our imported flour (wheat), sole leather, 
kerosene oil, and a large amount of raw cotton, as 
well as iron and steel. 

Among the items of our export, the principal are 
silk, cotton goods, copper, coal, tea, marine pro- 
ducts, grain, drugs, chemicals, and matches. The 
United States is by far our largest customer. 
Nearly all our tea finds its way thither, and I 
can testify that the Government enforces stringent 
laws against artificially colouring or adulterating it. 
Then, yearly, about three million dollars' worth of 
porcelain is brought to the United States, together 
with a similar amount of straw-braids. But be- 
yond comparison the greatest product of our 
land exported to America is silk, of which nearly 
a hundred million dollars' worth is annually bought 
by your country, supplying over sixty per cent, of 
all your silken demands. 

Among the countries from which we make our 
purchases, British India holds the first place with 
its supply of raw cotton, then follow Great Britain 
and China; the United States stands as fourth in 
the list, with Germany steadily catching up. It 
has been said the Kaiser's subjects will prove the 
keenest competitors of America, in the Far East. 



228 THe Japanese Nation 

As for the countries which buy of us, by far the 
most important is the United States, she being 
the only customer whose purchases have regularly 
been above one hundred and twenty million yen, 
whereas China comes next with eighty or ninety 
millions, followed by France, which trails far 
behind. 

Unfortunately and often unjustly, but alas 
sometimes justly ! — our commercial morality, espe- 
cially in dealings with foreigners, has been assailed. 
The articles sent out by our merchants have often 
fallen short of the standard of the sample, their 
weight has proved lighter than stated in the 
invoice, or their length less; then, too, they have 
lacked uniformity in workmanship. I believe 
there may too frequently have been intentional 
dishonesty; but it has far oftener been true that 
uniformity of standard was impracticable, since 
many of our export goods are products of hand- 
labour and therefore inevitably subject to varia- 
tion — a fact well understood and allowed for in 
the transactions of our home-trade, but not suf- 
ficiently considered by foreign importers accus- 
tomed to machine-made goods. 

To avert further discredit of our commercial 
morality, and to prevent dishonest practices, 
guilds have been formed in all parts of the country 
and in all trades. Their main function is to 
examine manufactured goods destined for export, 
and to condemn such as are found lacking in 
quality, weight, or length. Such goods are even 



Economic Conditions 229 

publicly burned. Of these industrial guilds there 
are at present about six thousand. There is a 
special conditioning house in Yokohama, where 
all silk intended for export must be examined 
before being shipped abroad. 

Commercial dishonesty, so often branded by 
foreign merchants as peculiarly Japanese, is but a 
passing phase. Experience teaches that "Honesty 
is the best policy," and this kind of morality is a 
virtue easily learned. As a burnt child has a 
wholesome fear of fire, so does a tradesman find 
that it does not pay to cheat. Moreover, what 
nation can throw the first stone at another for 
breach of honesty? In a recent issue of the 
Century Magazine (April, 191 2), a well-known 
American writer gives his countrymen's disregard 
of the observance of the terms of contract as a 
reason why the United States does not make 
greater advance in its trade with Italy. The 
impotence of American insurance companies to 
meet their obligations after the earthquake and 
fire in San Francisco, is a notorious illustration of 
business immorality. Examples like these may 
be multiplied, but they do not convince us that 
Americans as a nation are deficient in moral sense 
— neither does the immoral practice of some indi- 
vidual Japanese merchants prove that -honesty is 
foreign to our soil. The truth is that all are alike 
sinners, but we all find comfort in believing that 
we are rising upward, making stepping-stones of 
our own dead selves. 



230 THe Japanese Nation 

Commerce, apparently sordid and selfish, is 
evidently the handmaid of a higher principle. The 
time has passed of which Goldsmith sang that 
"'honour sinks when commerce long prevails." 
On the contrary, it is raising the international 
standard of morality, teaching fair play and a 
square deal, uniting nations and peoples, and 
bridging space. As, with the growth of a nation's 
commerce, its monetary system comes to be 
changed and expanded, so will its concept of moral 
values and its media of mental exchange be modi- 
fied and enlarged and brought into unity with world 
standards. The empire of trade encompasses the 
globe, and men through gainful effort are learning 
that by argosies of merchandise, and not by Dread- 
noughts, will be decided the final victory on the 
race-course of nations. As all roads, primarily 
military, led to Rome, so all trade routes now lead 
to Peace. The economic interests of our people 
are in themselves a strong argument for the main- 
tenance of peace in the Far East, and notably 
with our large creditor and chief customer, the 
United States. 



CHAPTER IX 

JAPAN AS COLONISER 

HISTORY has repeatedly shown *'how wide 
the limits stand between a splendid and 
a happy land.'* As with individuals, so with 
nations, greatness and happiness lie, alas ! too often 
at opposite poles. What belongs to the one may 
be shared by the other; but, as a rule, he who 
plucks the flower must forego the fruit. Falsely 
or truly (it is not now my purpose to discuss the 
moral or political issues involved in colonial enter- 
prise), modern nations vie with one another to 
express their greatness and splendour in territorial 
expansion, or else in ethnic colonisation. 

With the acquisition of the small island of For- 
mosa in 1895, Japan joined the ranks of colonial 
powers. Since then, she has added the southern 
half of the island of Saghalien by the treaty of 
Portsmouth in 1905 and the kingdom of Korea, 
now officially called Chdsen, by annexation in 191 1. 
Besides these territories, Japan holds the small 
province of Kwang-tung in the Liao Tung penin- 
sula, as well as a long and narrow strip of land 

231 



232 THe Japanese Nation 

along the South Manchurian railroad. These 
last two were leased from China in continuation of 
the contract which that nation had made with 
Russia before the war. 

In recounting what Japan has done as a colo- 
niser, I shall for several reasons devote my time to 
a review of what she has achieved in Formosa. In 
the first place, because it is the first, and may be 
called the only colony with which we have had 
experience of any length ; in the second place, be- 
cause it has served the purpose of educating us 
in the art of colonisation ; and in the third place, 
because the administration of this island forms 
a precedent for the government of later acquisi- 
tions. To these three reasons may be appended 
one other — namely, that I can speak of Formosa 
from a long and personal connection with it ; and 
to me the last is here the strongest and the best 
reason. 

Before proceeding further, let us refresh our 
memory regarding geography. 

Scattered over a wide surface of the globe are 
about a dozen places christened with the Portu- 
guese term Formosa — ' ' Beautiful. " It is needless 
to add that the word is of Latin origin, despite the 
fact that it is not to be found in the ancient or in 
the mediaeval list of nomina geographica. Among 
the modern places bearing the name, some are so 
small that many gazetteers do not condescend to 
notice their existence. 

There is an immense territory of the name of 



Japan as Coloniser 233 

Formosa covering 42,000 square miles, in the 
north of Argentine. Then there is a Httle town 
of the same name on the north-eastern coast of 
Brazil, as well as one on the southern coast of 
South Africa. Among the group of the Bissagos 
islands, is a Formosa. In the interior of Europe, 
too, on the Russian border, near the Danube, is a 
village of the same name. On a map of Asia, we 
find Mount Formosa, Formosa River, Formosa 
Strait, Formosa Banks, etc. On the American 
continent, in Bruce County, Ontario, there is a 
settlement called Formosa. In the slightly modi- 
fied form of Formoso, there is a banking and post 
village in Kansas (Jewell Co.), and in the still more 
modified Spanish form of Hermosa, one meets with 
the same name in New Mexico (Sierra Co.), in 
South Dakota (Custer Co.), and in California. 

Thus, in Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South 
America are found Formosas. But the Formosa 
which is the subject of my discourse, is, I suppose, 
the best known of them all. It is an island, lying 
a short distance off the eastern coast of China. Its 
area is 14,000 square miles, being about 240 miles 
in length, with the Tropic of Cancer crossing 
through its centre. Of volcanic formation, ranges 
of slaty and schistose mountains, mainly of the 
Tertiary age, run through its length, some of their 
peaks towering as high as 1 3,000 feet. The eastern 
coast is rocky and steep, affording very few landing 
places ; but the western coast consists of flat, fertile, 
alluvial plains, where are raised rice, sugar cane, 



234 TKe Japanese Nation 

tea, ramie, bananas, oranges, and sweet potatoes ^ ^ 
Among the mountains grow gigantic trees of 
various kinds, the most important being camphor 
and hinoki {Thuya ohtusa.) 

The island is as beautiful as it is fertile. The 
Portuguese navigators, as they sailed along the 
eastern coast, were so charmed by its precipitous 
but wooded mountains, its fantastic rocks and 
the foaming billows which dash against them, that 
they put down in their log-book their favorite 
name of "Ihla Formosa." From the other side, 
the Chinese, who can quite easily reach the western 
coast in their junks — the distance from Foochow 
to a Formosan port is only a little over a hundred 
miles — ^were struck with its beauty, as from their 
anchorage they saw hillsides inhabited and culti- 
vated, and they called it Taiwan, the "Terraced 
Bay," which is still the official designation of the 
island. The Japanese, too, had long known of it, 
and in times past venturesome spirits used to 
frequent it, but in later days only the poetical 
name "Takasago" (The High Sandy Tract) 
remained, suggesting in popular fancy a land of 
lotus-eaters. 

Our knowledge of Takasago was as fanciful as 
the account given of the island by that famous 
literary impostor, George Psalmanazar. A French- 
man by birth (born about 1679), he was taken from 
Holland to England by the chaplain of a Scotch 
regiment, and was there received with much curi- 
osity and honour because of his well-maintained 



Japan as Coloniser 235 

pretension of being a native of Formosa. His 
amusing treatise on A History and Description of 
the Island of Formosa off the Coast of China, pub- 
lished in London in 1704, still remains an amazing 
document of fabrication. The man evidently 
showed no lack of intellectual ingenuity when he 
constructed, an entire linguistic system including 
grammar and vocabulary. It is only to be ex- 
pected that his description did not tally with facts. 
Our acquaintance with Formosa, however, was 
not much better. But it came quite forcibly and 
unpleasantly upon us in 1874, when the report 
spread that the savages of Southern Formosa had 
slaughtered some Japanese sailors who were 
wrecked on its coast. China at that time held 
sway over the island. For the murder of her sub- 
jects, Japan demanded satisfaction of China, but, 
as the Celestial Government evaded responsibility, 
we sent an army to the island itself. It is inter- 
esting to notice that a number of American officers 
at first joined in this expedition; but, being warned 
by their Government to observe strict neutrality, 
they reluctantly left our service. After subju- 
gating the hostile tribe, our army left the island, 
China in the meantime offering to pay for damages. 
Our interest in Formosa then ceased, and nothing 
was done towards its conquest or even towards 
securing its trade. 

More than twenty years later, when the war 
between China and Japan came to an end, For- 
mosa was most unexpectedly brought into promi- 



236 THe Japanese Nation 

nence. When Japan proposed that China should 
cede the island, we were not at all sure that the 
suggestion would be regarded with favour. But 
the Chinese plenipotentiary, Li Hung-Chang, took 
up the proposition, as though it were wise on the 
part of his country to be freed from an encum- 
brance, and he even commiserated Japan for 
acquiring it. He pointed out that the island was 
not amenable to good government: (i) that brig- 
andage could never be exterminated ; (2) that the 
practice of smoking opium was too deep-rooted 
and wide-spread among the people to eradicate; 
(3) that the climate was not salubrious; and (4) 
that the presence of head-hunting tribes was a 
constant menace to economic development. The 
island, somewhat like Sicily, had, in the course 
of its history, been subject to the flags of various 
nations. Holland, Spain, and China ruled it at 
different times; a Hungarian nobleman once 
dominated it; and at one time Japanese pirates 
had practically usurped supreme power over it. 
In 1884, the French under the celebrated Admiral 
Courbet planted the tricolor on its shores, where 
it waved for eight months. Such instability in 
government is enough to demoralise any people; 
but among the inhabitants themselves there were 
elements which put law and order to naught. 

If these were the main causes of chronic misrule 
or absence of any rule in Formosa, let us see what 
Japan has done. 

In accordance with the stipulation of the treaty 



Japan as Coloniser 237 

of Shimonoseki, one of our generals, Count Kaba- 
yama, was dispatched as Governor- General of 
Formosa. In that capacity, he was about to land 
on the island with a large army, when he was met 
by the Chinese plenipotentiary at the port of 
Kelung, and in an interview which took place on 
board the steamer Yokohama Maru, the 17th of 
April, 1895, it was arranged that a landing should 
be effected without opposition. This marked the 
first occupation of the island by our troops. 
There were at that time some Imperial Chinese 
soldiers still remaining in the island, and they 
were ordered to disarm and leave the country. 
Many did so, but a few remained to oppose our 
advance; there were also a few patriots who did 
not feel ready to accept our terms — not prepared 
to accept alien rule, — and these either went from 
the island or took up arms against us. The so- 
called patriots proclaimed a republic, one of the 
very few republics ever started in Asia. Tang 
Ching-Sung was elected president. The republic 
of Formosa lasted three weeks, during which 
mobocracy and deviltry in all its forms reigned su- 
preme, leaving behind no evidence of its existence 
other than some postage stamps valuable for 
collectors ! At this time the professional brigands 
took advantage of the general disturbance to ply 
their trade. Peaceful citizens suffered more from the 
hands of their own countrymen — that is, from 
Chinese troops and brigands — than they did from 
us. Evidence of this lies in the fact that, as our 



238 THe Japanese Nation 

army approached the different towns, it was every- 
where received with open arms as a deliverer from 
robbery and slaughter. As for Tang Ching-Sung, 
he fled to China, as did also some of the wealthiest 
inhabitants, although many of these, learning of 
the security enjoyed under Japanese rule, have 
since returned. 

Though the island was pacified, no one knew 
what would happen next. We did not understand 
the character of the people. Very few Japanese 
could speak Formosan, and fewer Formosans 
could speak Japanese. There was naturally 
mutual distrust and suspicion. The bandits 
abounded everywhere. Under these conditions 
military rule was the only form of government that 
could be adopted until better assurance could be 
obtained of the disposition of the people. To 
carry out a military regime, it was calculated 
that some ten million yen (five million dollars) 
would be needed yearly. Out of this necessary 
sum only three million yen could be obtained in 
the island by taxation and from other sources of 
revenue. The balance had to be defrayed by 
the Imperial, that is by the Japanese, exchequer. 
Now, in those years, an annual appropriation of 
six or seven million yen, to be spent in an island 
far from home, with no immediate prospect of 
return, was a heavy burden for the rather limited 
finances of Japan. We know how land values are 
rising everywhere. Even in Africa, England had 
to pay very much more than she expected she 



Japan as Coloniser 239 

would have to, in getting land in the south ; and I 
think Italy has by this time found Tripoli rather 
more expensive than she at first anticipated. A 
colony that looks at a distance like the goose that 
lays the golden egg, on nearer approach, and 
especially when you have to pay the bills, often 
proves to be a white elephant. So among us, 
impatient people, infatuated with gloire politique, 
who had expected great things and great benefits 
to come from Formosa, began to clamour for 
greater thrift, and some of the very best pub- 
licists went even so far as to propose that the 
island should be sold back to China or to some 
other Power. To remedy this state of affairs, in 
the course of some thirty months governors were 
changed no less than three times. 

The first Governor- General was Count Kaba- 
yama, known as a hero of the Chino-Japanese 
War; the second was no less a man than Prince 
Katsura, of international fame as our Prime- 
Minister during the war with Russia; and the 
third was General Nogi, of Port Arthur renown. 
Finding that the country could ill afford such 
a luxury as a colony, the Parliament of Japan cut 
down its appropriation of six or seven million 
yen payable from the national treasury by about 
one-third, thus reducing the subsidy to only four 
millions. Now who would accept a position 
held by such a galaxy of talents, but now reduced 
financially to two-thirds of its former prestige? 
Only a man of unbounded resource, of keen per- 



240 THe Japanese Nation 

ception and quick decision— or else only a second 
or third-rate man — ^would accept such a place. 
Japan is forever to be congratulated on finding the 
right man at the right time for the right place. 
Viscount Kodama, who, as a member of the Gen- 
eral Staff, had made a study of the Formosan prob- 
lem, was ready to accept the governorship and the 
task of putting to rights the bankrupt housekeep- 
ing of the colony. I am afraid that this name, so 
well known among us, is much less familiar in 
America. Perhaps you can best remember it, if I 
tell you that he was the real brains of the Russo- 
Japanese War. In the choice of his assistant, the 
civil governor, he made the discovery, as he called 
it, of a man who proved himself a true right hand, 
and who in efficiency actually exceeded his most 
sanguine expectations. I refer to Baron Goto, 
who in the last cabinet held the post of Minister of 
Communications and was President of the Railway 
Board. Until he was made civil governor of 
Formosa under Kodama, he had been known as 
an expert on hygiene, having been a physician. 
The advent of these two men in Formosa marked 
a new era in our colonial administration. Upon 
entering their new duties early in 1898, the first 
thing they did was to bring about a practical sus- 
pension of military rule; at least, it was made sub- 
servient to civil administration. Military rule is 
apt to become harsh, and to the Chinese especially, 
who are not accustomed to respect the army, it is 
doubly harsh. / 



Japan as Coloniser 241 

Kodama and Goto, to whom English colonial 
service was an inspiring example, surprised the 
official world by a summary discharge of over one 
thousand public servants of high and low degree. 
They collected about them men known and tried 
for their knowledge and integrity. They used 
often to say: *'It is the man who rules and not red 
tape." In an old and well-settled country "red 
tape" may be convenient, but in a new colony 
great latitude of power and initiative must be left 
to individual men. I emphasise this point because 
these men, I mean the Governor-General and the 
civil governor, attributed their success largely to 
the selection and use of right men. 

When General Kodama went to Formosa, he 
found brigandage still rampant, and with military 
rule in abeyance there was some likelihood of its 
becoming worse. To offset this, the constabulary 
department was organised and made efficient by 
proper care in choosing men for the police and by 
educating them in the rudiments of law and in- 
dustries, to prepare them for their difficult and deli- 
cate tasks. Exceedingly arduous are their callings, 
for these policemen are required not only to repre- 
sent law and order but are expected to be teachers 
as well. They keep account, for instance, of every 
resident of the island, and they watch over every 
man and woman who smokes opium; they must 
become acquainted with children of school-age 
and know which children go to school and which 
do not. Our Formosan police are expected to 

16 



242 THe Japanese Nation 

instruct the people how to take care of themselves, 
especially in regard to pests and about disinfection. 
They perform many duties that would scarcely 
be required even of the Trooper Police of Austraha. 
They often live in villages where there are no 
Japanese other than the members of their own 
famiHes. Of course, they must know the Formosan 
language and speak it. 

Now, under civil administration, armies were 
not mobilised against brigands, and if there was 
any trouble, it was the policemen who had to go 
cope with the situation. The brigands were first 
invited to subject themselves to law, and if they 
surrendered their arms, they were assured not only 
of protection but of means of subsistence. Not a 
few leaders took the hint and were given special 
privileges. Those who resisted to the end were 
necessarily treated as disturbers and as criminals. 
Twelve years ago the brigands were so powerful 
that the capital of Formosa, Taihoku (Taipeh), 
was assaulted by them ; but in the last ten years we 
have scarcely heard of them. I went to Taihoku 
ten years ago, and, whenever I went a few miles out 
of the city, half-a-dozen policemen armed with 
rifles used to accompany me for my protection. 
For the last five or six years a young girl could 
travel unmolested from one end of the island to 
the other — of course, outside of savage or abo- 
riginal districts, of which I shall speak later. 

Thus, what Li Hung-Chang said in the con- 
ference of Shimonoseki turned out to be of little 



Japan as Coloniser 243 

consequence. According to him, brigandage was 
something inherent in the social structure of For- 
mosa. He said it was something that could not be 
uprooted in the island ; yet here is Formosa to-day 
with not a trace of it. That is one of the first 
things which was accomplished by Japan as a 
coloniser. 

Then, another great evil in the island, to which 
Li Hung-Chang alluded, was the smoking of 
opium. When the island was taken over, this 
subject was much discussed by our people. Some 
said opium-smoking must be summarily and 
unconditionally abolished by law. Others said: 
'*No, no, let it alone; it is something from which 
the Chinese cannot free themselves; let them 
smoke and smoke themselves to death." What 
took Baron Goto for the first time to Formosa was 
the mission of studying this question from a medi- 
cal standpoint, and the plan he drew up was for 
the gradual suppression of the evil. The models 
operandi was the control of the production by the 
Government; because, if the Government mono- 
polises the production and manufacture of opium, 
it can restrict the quantity as well as improve the 
quality so as to make it less harmful. Smuggling 
was watched and punished. A long list of all 
those who were addicted to this habit was com- 
piled, and only those who were confirmed smokers 
were given permission to buy the drug. Children 
and those who had never smoked were not 
allowed to buy, much less to begin the use of, 



244 THe Japanese Nation 

opium, and strict surveillance was instituted by 
the police, who, as I mentioned before, know 
every man in the villages to which they are 
appointed. The annual returns made of confirmed 
smokers and of the quantity consumed in the 
island, show a distinct and gradual decrease. In 
1900 those addicted to the habit numbered in 
round figures 170,000, or 6.3 per cent, of the 
population. As the older smokers die off, younger 
ones do not come to take their place ; so there is a 
constant diminution. In five years the number 
decreased to 130,000 or 3.5 per cent, of the popu- 
lation. We think this is the only right way to 
deal with this vice. It may interest you, perhaps, 
to know that American commissioners from the 
Philippine Islands came to study our system, and 
that they expressed much satisfaction with its 
results. Thus, the second evil which Li Hung- 
Chang said was ineradicable in Formosa, has been 
greatly weakened and seems destined to disappear. 

What man has built up, man can destroy. 
The artificial habit of opium-smoking can be 
discouraged by law. But there are formidable 
natural enemies which confront the sound eco- 
nomic development of the island. I mean its sani- 
tary disadvantages, especially some prevalent 
forms of disease — above all, malaria and bubonic 
plague and tropical dysentery. 

What money and the spirit of enterprise have 
undertaken has so often been largely nullified by a 
small mosquito. There are no less than eight 



Japan as Coloniser 245 

kinds of Anopheles, responsible yearly for at least 
twenty per cent, of all cases of sickness, many of 
which end in death. 

Chiefly owing, directly or indirectly, to malaria, 
the population of Formosa has never been very 
great. It appears that in pre- Japanese days, the 
population of the island was recruited by immi- 
grants from China. Only lately is the birth-rate 
slowly showing a net increase over and above the 
death-rate. The mortality from malaria has been 
roughly estimated at three-and-a-half per thou- 
sand of population. Among the Japanese, this 
rate is diminishing, but not among the Chinese. 
The fact that new-comers from Japan are so easily 
attacked, is the greatest drawback to colonising the 
island. Sugar-mills, for want of sufficient labour, 
have imported Japanese; but usually one-third of 
them cannot be depended upon — that is to say, 
the efficiency of labour maybe said to be diminished 
by one-third on account of malaria. When I 
went to Panama last winter, nothing commanded 
my respect for the American work conducted there 
more than Colonel Goethals's system of sanitation. 
As I meditated upon the careful detail of medical 
supervision in the Canal Zone, I naturally com- 
pared the results with the situation in Formosa, 
and thought if we could afford to spend as much 
money as the Canal Commission does, if Taiwan 
were smaller in size, if it could be brought under 
military administration, and if there were no rice- 
fields — then we might succeed better in our crusade 



246 THe Japanese Nation 

against the insect. Even under present conditions 
every effort is made to drive out malaria; and in 
the meantime an army of scientists is advancing 
against the Anopheles in biological, physiological, 
and chemical columns, with clearly visible results. 
In the barracks outside of Taihoku, there is little 
malaria. In the town itself, the improved drain- 
age — a sewerage system having been constructed 
of the stones of which, in Chinese days, the city 
walls were built — has evidently contributed toward 
the same end. So, also, has the good water supply, 
which has taken the place of wells and cisterns. 
Then, too, new building regulations enforce better 
ventilation and access to sunlight. In the prin- 
cipal cities, large portions of the town have been 
entirely rebuilt. I have heard it said by medical 
men that if the Japanese coming to Taiwan make 
their domicile in the capital (Taihoku) and remain 
there, they are quite free from malaria. Other 
cities, notably Tainan in the south, are making 
sanitary improvements, so that they will probably 
show a similar immunity within a few years. As 
for the island at large, owing to the fact that 
irrigation is the very life of rice-culture, there 
are necessarily unlimited breeding-places for mos- 
quitoes. Consequently, general hygienic progress, 
such as Dr. Boyce describes with just pride in 
writing of the West Indies, will not be so easy to 
accomplish in Formosa. 

Smallpox and cholera have been practically 
eliminated from the Hst of prevalent diseases. 



Japan as Coloniser 247 

With the bubonic plague, the Government has had 
a pretty hard fight. Dr. Takaki, who has been 
chief of sanitation for some years, has devoted his 
energy and scientific knowledge to the eradication 
of it by every possible means, so that there has 
been a steady and regular decrease of pest since 
1906. 

To give an idea of the decline and fall of the 
sway of the Black Death, I will state in round 
numbers the death-rates for the following years : 

1905 4.500 

1906 3,350 

1907 3.250 

1908 2,700 

1909 1,300 

1910 . . . , 1,030 

191 1 20 

Though we still suffer from its sporadic appear- 
ance, we have every promise of its near extinction. 
At present, the most troublesome disease is trop- 
ical dysentery, which, if not usually fatal, is ex- 
tremely persistent and enervating. 

Allow me to insert here a remark about the 
rinderpest. Some ten years ago, its ravages were 
so great that we feared we might lose all our water 
buffaloes and bullocks ; but, thanks to vigilance and 
inoculation, we have for the last five years been 
having only a few hundred deaths annually, 
whereas they used to be counted by thousands. 



248 The Japanese Nation 

Thus the third great impediment which Li 
Hung-Chang thought would prohibit progress in 
Taiwan is being steadily overcome, and now I 
reach the fourth and last obstruction,— namely 
the presence of head-hunting tribes, allied to the 
head-hunters of Borneo made familiar by the pen 
of Professor Haddon. These Malay people are 
the oldest known inhabitants of the island. That 
they are not autochthonous is evident from the 
tradition, current among many tribes, that their an- 
cestors arrived in a boat from some distant quar- 
ter. At present they number about one hundred 
and fifteen thousand. They are in a very primitive 
state of social life. The only art with which they 
are acquainted is agriculture, and that of a very 
rude sort — ^what in Europe is called spade-culture, 
or what scientific men dub *'Hack-Kultur" 
(hoe culture), as opposed to agriculture proper, — a 
kind of farming which Mr. Morgan in his Primi- 
tive Society first explained as a precursor of real 
agriculture, in which the plough is used. They 
raise upland rice, millet, peas, beans, and some 
common vegetables, such as pumpkins and rad- 
ishes. They do not know the art of fertilising 
land, and they look upon manuring as an act of 
contamination. 

They have scarcely any clothing; a few tribes 
wear none. Their houses are usually built of 
wood and bamboo and are roofed with slate or 
straw. Scrupulously clean in their personal habits, 
bathing frequently, they keep their huts very 



Japan as Coloniser 249 

neat. In character, they are brave and fierce 
when roused to ire ; otherwise, friendly and child- 
like. They must have occupied the alluvial 
plains of the coast in years gone by, but were 
driven upward by the Chinese immigrants, Hakkas 
and Haklos, until they now dwell among almost 
inaccessible heights. 

What concerns us most nearly in their manner 
of life, is their much venerated custom of conse- 
crating any auspicious occasion by obtaining a 
human head. If there is a wedding in prospect, 
the young man cannot marry unless he brings in 
a head, and the susceptibility of the human heart 
being much the same in savagery as in civilisation, 
this is a tremendous spur to head-hunting. A 
funeral cannot be observed without a head. 
Indeed all celebrations of any importance must be 
graced with it. Where a bouquet would be used 
by you, a grim human head, freshly cut, is the 
essential decoration at their banquet. More- 
over, a man's courage is tested by the number of 
heads he takes, and respect for him grows with his 
achievements. Thus the gruesome objects adorn 
the so-called skull-shelf, for the same reason that 
lions' and stags' heads are the pride of a gentle- 
man's hall. One sometimes comes across a hut, 
near which is placed a tier of shelves ornamented 
with heads in all stages of decay — the trophies of 
some brave head-hunter! 

The district where they roam is marked off by 
outposts, which I shall soon describe. Like the 



250 



THe Japanese Nation 



"Forbidden Territory" or boma in British East 
Africa, no one is allowed to enter the ''Savage 
Boundary" without permit from the authorities. 
The importance of this decree will be obvious if I 
state that its area covers more than half of the 
island, and when the savages want a head, they steal 
down, hide themselves among the underbrush or 
among the branches of trees, and shoot the first 
unlucky man who passes by. I was told of one sav- 
age who had his rifle so placed on a support that 
he could shoot any person who happened to walk 
past a certain fixed distance and at a certain 
height. There he waited for days for somebody 
to come within range ; and he succeeded in getting 
a head ! With such people it is practically impos- 
sible to do anything. We have made repeated 
attempts to subjugate them; but so far we have 
not succeeded in doing as much damage to them as 
they have done to us. 

During Chinese ascendency the Government 
built a line of military posts, somewhat like the 
trocha, of which one still sees remains in Cuba. 
But after we had tried different methods, we came 
at last to the use of electrically charged wire fences. 
At a safe distance from savage assaults, generally 
along the ridge of mountain ranges, posts about 
five feet high are planted at intervals of six or seven 
feet, and on them are strung four strong wires. 
On each side of the fence a space of some thirty 
feet or so is cleared of brush, so that any one 
approaching may be detected at once. All along 



Japan as Coloniser 251 

the fence are block-houses, perhaps three, four or 
five in a mile, guarded by armed sentinels (usually 
Chinese trained as police), who are semi- volun- 
teers. The most important feature of the fence 
is that the lowest wire has a strong electric current 
running through it. Such a wire fence stretches a 
distance of some three hundred miles. It costs 
thousands of dollars to keep it in order ; yet every 
year we extend some miles farther into the savage 
district, so that their dominion is being more and 
more restricted to the tops of the mountains. 
When they are practically caged, we make over- 
tures to them. We say, ''If you come down and 
don't indulge in head-hunting, we will welcome 
you as brothers," — because they are brothers. 
These Malay tribes resemble the Japanese more 
than they do the Chinese, and they themselves 
say of the Japanese that we are their kin and 
that the Chinese are their enemies. Because the 
Chinese wear queues, they think that their heads 
are especially made to be hunted. And now every 
year, as I say, we are getting better control over 
them by constantly advancing the fence, and 
owing to the fact that they are in want of salt, cut 
off as they are from the sea. Then we say, ''We 
will give you salt if you will come down and give up 
your weapons." Thus tribe after tribe has recog- 
nised our power through the instrumentality of 
salt, and has submitted itself to Japanese rule. 
Here I may say, to the credit of these primitive 
men, that when once their promise of good be- 



252 The Japanese Nation 

haviour is made, it is kept. When they submit 
themselves, we build them houses, give them 
agricultural tools and implements, give them 
land, and let them continue their means of live- 
lihood in peace. 

Thus I have dwelt in a very sketchy manner 
on the four points to which Li Hung-Chang, in 
the conference at Shimonoseki, alluded as great 
obstacles in the way of governing Formosa. What, 
now, is the result? At first we could not manage 
the colony with the money that \ye could raise in 
the island ; every year we had to get some subsidy 
from the national treasury. It was thought 
that such a subsidy would be necessary un- 
til 1 910. But by the development of Formosan 
industries — the better cultivation of rice, the im- 
proved production of Oolong tea, for which you 
are the best customer, the control of the camphor 
industry (for nearly all the camphor that you use, 
if not artificial, is produced in Formosa), the suc- 
cessful encouragement of cane culture, which has 
increased the output of sugar sixfold in the last ten 
years — by developing these industries, we can get 
money enough in the island to do all the work 
that is needed to be done there. An accurate 
cadastral survey made landed property secure, 
enhanced its value, and added indirectly to its tax- 
paying capacity. The consumption tax placed on 
sugar alone brings in more than one-third of the 
public revenue. The growth of Formosa's foreign 
trade has been such that the customs now return 



Japan as Coloniser 253 

no mean sum. The administration of the Island 
has been so successful that it attained financial 
independence two years before the expiration of 
the term fixed for it. 

There still remains much to be done. Irrigation 
work, for instance, is being carried out on a large 
scale. Then, there is the improvement of the 
harbours. Both in the north, at Kelung, and in 
the south, at Takao, commodious and deep har- 
bours are now being constructed or improved. We 
have built a railroad from one end of the island 
to the other, but there is demand for further ex- 
tention. Schools and hospitals are to be met with 
in every village and town, but more are needed. 
In all these things we think that we have succeeded 
quite well, especially when we compare our colony 
of Formosa with the experiments that other nations 
are making. 

In giving this very rough sketch, I have only 
tried to show the general lines of policy pursued in 
the development of Formosa. Though the colony 
was at first thought to be a luxury, it is now a 
necessity to us. And the example that we have 
set for ourselves will be followed in our other 
colonies. 

I may say that the general principle of our colo- 
nial policy in Formosa was, first of all, the defence 
of the island. Much is said about our increased 
navy. Some people in America think that we are 
enlarging our navy prompted by a dubious motive ; 
but with the acquisition of Formosa, of the island 



254 THe Japanese Natioix 

of Saghalien, and of Korea, our coast-line has been 
greatly increased, and still the augmentation of 
our fleet is not sufficient for the proper defence 
of all our shores. 

The second principle is the protection of prop- 
erty and life, and the dissemination of legal in- 
stitutions — the rudimentary functions of a well 
ordered state. People unaccustomed to the pro- 
tection of law feel as though it were despotism. 
But they will soon find that, after all, good govern- 
ment and good laws are the safeguard of social 
well-being, and we have to teach in Korea as well 
as in Formosa, what government is and what laws 
are. 

You read now and then in the newspapers of 
arrests in Korea, and forthwith Japan is charged 
with being a cruel master. Let the world remem- 
ber that a change of masters is rarely made without 
friction. It takes some time for a people to know 
that a jural state means enforcement of justice, 
and that this does not imply encroachment upon 
personal liberty, which under the old regime 
Korean courtiers identified with royal favour. 
Without law, no real liberty is conceivable, and 
lawlessness must suffer its own consequences. 

Then the third point is the protection of health. 
I have spoken to you of what we have done in 
Formosa. A similar policy will be pursued in 
Korea. In an interview with Prince Ito in Seoul, 
when I said that the population in Korea had not 
increased in the last hundred years and that per- 



Japan as Coloniser 255 

haps the Korean race was destined to disappear, 
he replied: "Well, I am not sure. I wish to see 
whether good laws will increase the fecundity of 
the Korean people." 

The fourth consideration is the encouragement 
of industries and means of communication. In 
Formosa we have seen how much the Government 
has done to improve the quality as well as the 
quantity of rice, salt, camphor, and sugar. Nearly 
all the improvements in these industries have 
been initiated or suggested by the Government. 
As to means of communication, the prefectures vie 
with each other in building new roads or in making 
old ones better. 

The fifth point in our policy is that of educa- 
tion. In Formosa we have just reached the stage 
where we are taking up educational problems seri- 
ously. We could not do it sooner, because our 
idea was first of all to give to our new fellow-sub- 
jects something that would satisfy their hunger 
and thirst ; their bodies had to be nourished before 
their minds. Now that economic conditions are 
so much better, schools are being started in all the 
villages. 

These, then, are some of the broad lines of 
colonial policy which we have practised with good 
results in Taiwan, and which will be carried out in 
Chosen. In writing of the Japanese rule in For- 
mosa, Mr. MacKay, the British consul there, con- 
cludes his article by expressing two doubts: one 
in regard to the commingling of races, Japanese 



256 THe Japanese Nation 

and Formosans; the other, in regard to the Jap- 
anisation of the Formosans. He seems to doubt 
whether either will take place. As far as the 
Japanese are concerned, they do not trouble 
themselves about these questions, any more than 
do the English in their colonies. I think assimi- 
lation will be found easier in Korea, for the reason 
that the Korean race is very much allied to our 
own. In Formosa, assimilation will be out of the 
question for long years to come, and we shall not 
try to force it. We put no pressure upon the 
people to effect assimilation or Japanisation. Our 
idea is to provide a Japanese milieu, so to speak, 
and if the Formosans adapt themselves to our 
ways of their own accord, well and good. Social 
usages must not be laid upon an unwilling people. 
An ancient saying has it : ' ' He who flees must not be 
pursued, but he who comes must not be repulsed." 
If the Formosans or the Koreans approach us in 
customs and manners, we will not repulse them. 
We will receive them with open arms and we 
will hold them as our brothers; but if they do 
not desire to adopt our way of living, we will not 
pursue them. We leave their customs and man- 
ners just as they are disposed to have them, as 
long as they are law-abiding. Our principle is 
firmness in government and freedom in society. 
Firmness in government is something which they 
did not have before, and that is what we offer to 
them. If they look upon it as they used to look 
upon court intrigue and family vendetta, they 



Japan as Coloniser 257 

must learn at their own cost what modern nomoc- 
racy means. At the same time, Japan must know 
that the secret of colonial success is justice sea- 
soned with mercy. Should she fail to recognise 
this ancient truth, she will but add another illus- 
tration of the poet's words cited at the beginning 
of this chapter. 

I? 



CHAPTER X 

AMERICAN-JAPANESE INTERCOURSE PRIOR TO THE 
ADVENT OF PERRY 

WITH the Declaration of . Independence, the 
trade of the United States with her quon- 
dam mother-country naturally declined without 
showing any appreciable increase in commerce 
with other nations, and her shipping was diverted 
from accustomed lines on account of English 
navigation laws. Discouraging commercial con- 
ditions like these, aggravated by small returns 
from their agricultural pursuits, turned the atten- 
tion of the New England people to adventures in 
the Far East very early in the history of this 
country. Already in 1784, within a year after 
the definitive Treaty of Peace was signed, a bark 
flying the flag of the Stars and Stripes made a 
bold cruise into Oriental waters, where in those 
days the English Union Jack overawed all other 
national ensigns. As the bark approached the 
coast of China, it was unexpectedly hailed by two 
French men-of-war, and, escorted by these, entered 
the port of Canton. The bark carried but Httle 

258 



R^elations Prior to Perry 259 

merchandise, but the business transacted was 
exceedingly lucrative. Especially were furs dis- 
posed of at a good price. Next year the voyage 
was repeated, and in three years as many as fifteen 
American vessels visited this port, largely with 
seal-skins, otter and other furs from the South 
Seas and the north-west coast of this continent. 
These vessels brought a cargo of tea, silks, and 
other Chinese produce. 

In those days, Japan was apparently passed over 
or passed by, as impossible of access. It is true 
that in 1797, an American ship, the Eliza of New 
York, Captain Stewart, made a voyage to Naga- 
saki. This was perhaps the first time that the 
American flag was seen in our waters. The Eliza 
repeated her voyages for several years following, 
but on no occasion except the last did she come 
on her own initiative. She was hired by the 
Dutch in Batavia, who, afraid of the English navy 
in the Indian seas in the days when Holland was 
under Napoleon's rule, dared not make their regu- 
lar visit to Japan. When Captain Stewart made 
his last voyage in 1803, he attempted to open trade 
on his own responsibility, but was not successful. 

In 1798, an American ship, the Franklyn, Cap- 
tain James Devereux, made its way to Japan, 
sailing under Dutch colours. The next year there 
came, also under the charter of the East India 
Company, a Salem ship, Captain John Derby. It 
is recorded that these men came and left their 
footprints on the sands, soon to be washed away, 



26o THe Japanese Nation 

however. Individually they left no trace, but 
they counted as landmarks in the development of 
American- Japanese intercourse; for not a "black 
ship," as a foreign vessel was then called, was 
sighted, without being watched and studied and 
discussed — thus contributing a blow, however 
slight, to the final overthrow of Exclusivism. 

As the China trade developed, the skippers dis- 
covered the new importance of the Hawaiian 
Islands, known on their charts ever since the time 
of Captain Cook (1792). Situated in mid-ocean, 
they afforded a most convenient stopping-place 
for replenishing the supply of water, for making 
repairs, and for avoiding occasional storms. It 
was not long before they found that sandal- wood, 
which fetched an exorbitant price in China, grew 
in abundance in these islands. This wood gave a 
fresh impetus to Oriental trade. However, com- 
merce founded upon sheer exploitation is not 
guaranteed a long lease of life. Fur-bearing ani- 
mals decreased year by year, owing to the ruth- 
lessness with which they were hunted. The 
sandal-wood forests were felled, and this without 
scruple. In the first two decades of the nineteenth 
century, the foundations of trade with China were 
in jeopardy, and, with them, American interests 
in the Pacific. 

The Pacific coast was not yet connected with 
the Atlantic, and the first city founded there, 
Astoria, suffered heavily during the War of 1812. 
The American merchant marine in the Pacific also 



IVelations Prior to Perry 261 

underwent severe loss, together with the navy, 
at the hand of the Britishers. Nevertheless, 
during this "War of Paradoxes," American com- 
merce showed a wonderful power of growth, 
especially in the New England States, and when 
peace was concluded the New England merchants 
sought a new field of investment. What their 
fathers lost in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and on the 
coast of Newfoundland, they attempted to regain 
in the Pacific. Fishing had been practically wiped 
out during the Revolution ; but in the first quarter 
of the nineteenth century, whaling became a pro- 
fitable outlet for investment. It was not a new 
industry, having been carried on prior to the Revo- 
lution ; but its importance grew rapidly after the 
War of 1 8 1 2 . In eager pursuit of prey, the Ameri- 
can whalers soon rounded Cape Horn and their 
black ships could be counted by scores — ^in a few 
years by hundreds — ^between the Hawaiian Islands 
and Japan. 

As yet, however, they were exposed to dangers 
of manifold kinds, notably to the depredations of 
their English rivals and to the mercy of storms 
and waves. The danger resulting from the latter 
source could not well be avoided unless they had 
friendly havens, but such there was none, as Japan, 
far from affording shelter, carried the logic of 
exclusion to its extreme conclusion, by treating as 
criminals whomsoever drifted by misfortune to her 
shores. As for the former danger, the United 
States had despatched a few gunboats to cruise 



262 THe Japanese Nation 

in the whaling districts for the protection of 
her citizens. Commodore Porter was one of the 
officers who were sent out for this purpose, and he 
could recommend no better means of security to 
American whalers than that of bringing Japan into 
amicable relations with his country. To this end, 
he addressed a letter to Secretary Monroe in 1815. 
This was the year that a squadron under Decatur 
was sent to the Mediterranean and a treaty was 
signed with Algiers. Why should not another 
squadron be sent westward to Japan? The pro- 
posal seemed about to be put into effect, and 
the Commodore was to be sent as envoy, with a 
frigate and two sloops of war. In the meantime 
the whaling industry made steady progress. In 
1822, as many as twenty-four whaling vessels 
anchored at one time in the harbour of Honolulu. 
About this time, not only on the seas, but also on 
land, the United States was expanding with great 
strides, and it is no wonder that John Quincy 
Adams should urge that it was the duty of Chris- 
tian nations to open Japan, and that it was the 
duty of Japan to respond to the demands of the 
world, as no nation had a right to withhold its 
quota to the general progress of mankind. Still 
no official step was taken, indeed nothing definite 
was planned until 1832 — ^under his successor, 
Andrew Jackson — ^when it was suggested that Mr. 
Edmund Roberts should be appointed as a special 
agent to negotiate treaties with Oriental courts. 
But again nothing came of the plan. Mean- 



Relations Prior to Perry 263 

while interest in Japan was awakened in some in- 
fluential quarters and for unexpected reasons. 

The Black Current, the Kuro-Shiwo, flows from 
the tropics along the eastern coast of Japan, and 
continues to flow northward beyond the limits of 
that Empire, then turns in a large curve and joins 
with a current that washes the western shores of 
America. Many a shipwTccked sailor and fisher- 
man of Japan must, in the course of centuries, 
have drifted on these currents and been cast ashore 
on the American continent. Mr. Charles Wolcott 
Brooks enumerates a large number of well authen- 
ticated cases of this kind, in his monograph on 
Japanese Wrecks, Early Maritime Intercourse of 
Ancient Western Nations, as well as in his pam- 
phlet on the Origin of the Chinese Race. 

Now about the middle of the third decade of the 
last century, a band of fishermen who were wrecked 
on our coast were carried away by the Kuro-Shiwo 
and were picked up near Astoria. As curious 
specimens of humanity, they were cared for, and, 
after being sent from place to place in the United 
States, they were taken to Macao, China, where 
there were American houses, in the hope that they 
could be more easily shipped from there back to 
their home. An American merchant residing 
here, C. W. King by name, saw in the return of 
these men, seven altogether, an opportunity to 
begin negotiations for the opening of trade with 
Japan. 

Mr. Kjng equipped at his own expense a mer- 



264 The Japanese Nation 

chantman, the Morrison, for this errand of mercy. 
To avoid every possible cause for suspicion, he 
removed all guns and armament, which sailing- 
craft of all descriptions used to carry at that time. 
To further emphasise the peaceful character of 
the undertaking, he took with him his wife. They 
were accompanied by three clergymen who have 
since made their names famous in the history of 
Christian missions — Peter Parker, Charles Gutz- 
laff, and S. Wells WilHams. Dr. WiUiams had 
learned some Japanese from the shipwrecked sail- 
ors who were to be sent home by the Morrison. I 
may mention here that it was Dr. Williams who 
was the chief interpreter during subsequent nego- 
tiations with Perry. Mr. King took with him a 
number of presents — such as books, instruments, 
etc., with the view of impressing the Japanese with 
the greatness of his country and of the triumphs 
of Christian civilisation. While the preparations 
for departure were being made, Dutch traders 
brought the news to the Japanese authorities that 
a ''Morrison" might visit their harbours at any 
time. Hereupon forts were repaired, cannons 
were put in prime order, sentinels were multiplied 
at all the main points of defence on the coast. 
Thus by the time the Morrison entered the Bay of 
Yedo in 1837 with every manifestation of good 
will, she was so mercilessly fired upon that she had 
to weigh anchor and flee. She attempted landing 
a few days later in the southern port of Kagoshima, 
but here, too, she received no more hospitable 



R^elations Prior to Perry 265 

reception. For all his good intentions, Mr. King 
reaped nothing but hostile feeling. As Dr. Will- 
iams writes: '' Commercially speaking, the voyage 
cost about $2000 without any returns; and the 
immediate effects, in a missionary or scientific way, 
were nil." 

For the students of Japanese history of this 
period, unusual interest and pathos are attached 
to this voyage of Mr. King's. For, in the thirties 
or forties of the last century, while Japan was still 
under the strictest regime of seclusion, there was 
working in certain small circles a powerful leaven 
of Western knowledge, which was soon to leaven 
the whole Empire. Among the pioneers of Euro- 
pean culture may here be mentioned two of the 
most prominent— Noboru Watanabe and Choyei 
Takano. They were tireless in gathering informa- 
tion about the West and in their effort to convince 
the authorities of the futility and folly of exclusion. 

A few months after the unhappy episode of 
King's enterprise had transpired, the rumour 
reached the ears of Watanabe and Takano that a 
''Morrison" was coming to Japan, whereupon the 
latter published a booklet entitled The Story oj a 
Dream. This zealous exponent of Western learn- 
ing was naturally opposed to the policy of resort- 
ing to force, should a ''black ship" approach our 
dominion. In his pamphlet he ridiculed the idea 
of defending our territory against a foreign navy 
by relying upon old-fashioned rifles and wooden 
barracks and cotton curtains. He grows still 



266 THe Japanese Nation 

more sarcastic when he exposes, as he thinks, the 
utter ignorance of the authorities about things 
Western. ' ' The idea of taking the name of Morri- 
son for that of a ship is simply absurd. Why, it 
is the name of a man, a great scholar, who is well 
versed in Oriental lore, familiar with all the classics 
of China. Should a man of his eminence honour 
our land with a visit, we should receive him with 
due respect and hospitality. ' ' Takano was himself 
mistaken as to the bearer of the name Morrison. 
He was thinking of the Rev. Robert Morrison, 
who, however, had been dead since 1834. Such 
an error on the part of so well-meaning and pro- 
gressive a student of Occidental affairs is in itself 
touching ; but the climax of pathos is reached when 
for his Story of a Dream he was sentenced to per- 
petual imprisonment, and though he fled from 
the execution of the law for a little while, hiding 
himself or wandering about under different 
assumed names, so closely was he pursued that, 
in order to escape an ignominious death, he put 
an end to himself. His colleague, Watanabe, a 
great scholar as well as painter, whose works 
adorn the literature and art of our nation, did not 
fare much better. 

To return to the Morrison, Mr. King, upon com- 
ing back from the fruitless expedition, made public 
his experience and his reflections on it in a book. 
The Claims of Malayasia or the Voyage of the 
''Morrison'' the first book pubHshed in America 
on Japan. In the most earnest tone, he appeals 



iVelations Prior to Perry 267 

to ^'the champions of his country's benevolence,'* 
not to despair about opening the sealed portals of 
Japan. He argues that Great Britain and America 
divide the maritime influence of the world, and 
that "America is the hope of Asia beyond the 
Malay Peninsula, that her noblest effort will find 
a becoming theatre there." He tells his country- 
men "that Japan will more readily yield to and 
repay their efforts, and that China can be more 
easily reached through Japan." He calls upon 
all the best instincts of the American public — ^its 
Christian sympathies, its commercial interests, its 
republican glories — to exert themselves in this 
heaven-appointed task lying before it. 

Mr. King's appeal was evidently little heeded. 
American interests in the Pacific were not ap- 
preciated enough to call forth response from 
the Government or the people. Meanwhile Ameri- 
can trade with China was increasing and the 
whaling industry was constantly assuming greater 
magnitude. 

In 1839, out of some 555 American ships engaged 
in whale-fishery, the overwhelming majority 
cruised in the Pacific. Professor Coolidge says 
that in 1845, according to the local records, 497 
whalers, manned by 14,905 sailors, visited the 
Hawaiian Islands, and of the total, three-fourths 
flew the flag of the United States. Two years 
later, the number of vessels rose to 729, and the 
capital invested in the enterprise was calculated 
at $20,000,000. By 1848, the New Bedford men 



268 THe Japanese Nation 

passed through Behring Straits into the Arctic 
Ocean, and of the whole American fleet, no less 
than 278 were in North Pacific waters. 

It was chiefly in the interest of whaling that 
the Hon. Zadoc Pratt of Prattsville, Orange 
County, N. Y., member of Congress and chairman 
of the Select Committee on Statistics, laid before 
the House a report, in 1845, concerning the advisa- 
bility of taking prompt action by sending an 
embassy to Japan and Korea. The next year, 
Commodore Biddle was appointed to head an ex- 
pedition and embark with a fleet consisting of the 
Columbus and the Vincennes. He was provided 
with a letter from President Polk to the Emperor 
of Japan. The object of this expedition was to 
ascertain whether the ports of Japan were acces- 
sible. The Commodore arrived safe and well in 
the Bay of Yedo, and opened communications 
which continued for ten tedious days, at the end 
of which, on receipt of the following anonymous 
note, he left. 

The object of this communication is to explain the 
reasons why we refuse to trade with foreigners who 
come to this country across the ocean for that purpose. 

This has been the habit of our nation from time 
immemorial. In all cases of a similar kind that have 
occurred, we have positively refused to trade. For- 
eigners have come to us from various quarters, but 
have always been received in the same way. In 
taking this course with regard to you, we only pursue 
our accustomed policy. We can make no distinction 



R^elations Prior to Perry 269 

between different foreign nations — we treat them all 
alike; and you, as Americans, must receive the same 
answer with the rest. It will be of no use to renew 
the attempt, as all applications of the kind, however 
numerous they may be, will be steadily rejected. 

We are aware that our customs are in this respect 
different from those of some other countries, but every 
nation has a right to manage its affairs in its own way. 

The trade carried on with the Dutch at Nagasaki 
is not to be regarded as furnishing a precedent for 
trade with other foreign nations. The place is one of 
few inhabitants and very little business is transacted, 
and the whole affair is of no importance. 

In conclusion, we have to say that the Emperor 
positively refuses the permission you desire. He earn- 
estly advises you to depart immediately, and to consult 
your own safety by not appearing again upon our coast. 

Commodore Biddle*s mission was worse than a 
mere failure. It had the effect of lowering the 
dignity of his country in the mind of the Oriental. 
The defiant and haughty tone running through 
the foregoing note was, I dare say, the result of 
his having accepted insult without strong demon- 
stration. It may be, he meant only to be cautious 
and courteous, and that his caution and courtesy 
were sadly misconstrued. I refer to an unpleasant 
incident which occurred during his interview with 
certain Japanese officers. He describes it as 
follows: "I went alongside the junk in the ship's 
boat, in my uniform; at the moment that I was 
stepping on board, a Japanese on the deck of the 



270 TKe Japanese Nation 

junk, gave me a blow or push, which threw me 
back into the boat." He says that the conduct of 
the man was inexpHcable; but after assurance had 
been obtained from the officials that the man 
would be severely punished, nothing further was 
asked or demanded by the Commodore. A 
stronger attitude on his part might have ended 
in his reaping the glory of opening Japan, or, at 
least, in relieving the sufferings of many of his 
countrymen ; because, with the growth of whaling 
in Japanese waters, the ship-wrecked sailors and 
deserters landing on our coast increased in num- 
ber. Only two months before Commodore Biddle 
appeared, the Lawrence, under Captain Baker, who 
had sailed from Poughkeepsie the previous sum- 
mer, was wrecked on the coast of one of the Kurile 
Islands. Seven of the crew survived. At first 
they were treated kindly, but no sooner had their 
presence been reported to the authorities than 
they were placed in close confinement, subject to 
privation and ill-treatment which lasted for seven- 
teen months, so that all the while that Biddle was 
negotiating in the Bay of Yedo these poof crea- 
tures were in dire distress. They were finally 
liberated and sent to Batavia by a Dutch ship. 

Two years later, the crew of another whaler, 
the Ladoga, on account of bad treatment, deserted 
the ship in five boats, two of which were soon 
swamped. The surviving three parties, consisting 
of fifteen men — nine of whom were Sandwich 
Islanders — drifted upon an islet near the town of 



Relations Prior to Perry 271 

Matsumae (now Fukushima) . Suspected of being 
spies, they were put in jail in Matsumee and after- 
ward in Nagasaki. Their repeated attempts to 
break away from the prison only seemed to con- 
firm the Japanese in their suspicion, and the rigours 
of confinement were doubled. One Maury, a 
Hawaiian, hung himself in the prison ; Ezra Gold- 
thwait died of disease, or, as was charged, of 
medicine prescribed by a quack. Suffering from 
brutal treatment one day, **on being taken out of 
our stocks," so narrates one of the prisoners, "we 
told the Japanese guards that their cruelty to us 
would be told the Americans, who would come 
here and take vengeance on them. Our guards 
replied, sneeringly, that they knew better, and 
that the Americans did not care how poor sailors 
were treated; if they did, then they should have 
come and punished the Japanese at Yedo, when 
a Japanese had insulted an American Chief." 
The last allusion was to the incident which we have 
already related concerning Commodore Biddle. 

With nothing to break the monotony of their 
irksome captivity, except growls and threats from 
the guards, the poor sailors of the Ladoga were on 
the verge of despair, when one evening the report 
of a distant gun, a sure signal of the approach of a 
foreign ship, reached their ears. A foreign ship 
it was. James Glynn, Commander of the U. S. 
Ship Prehle, was dispatched by Commodore D. 
Geisinger upon the advice of John W. Davis, U. S. 
Commissioner to China, to whom the news of the 



272 THe Japanese Nation 

captivity of the Ladoga's crew had been communi- 
cated by J. H. Levyssohn, Superintendent of 
Dutch trade in Deshima. The Prehle entered the 
harbour of Nagasaki on the 17th of April, 1 849. 
After a week's conference, it was arranged that 
the ship-wrecked mariners, who had been suffering 
so long from the effect of their misfortune, should 
be delivered up immediately. Accordingly, on 
the 26th, they were all carried to the town-house, 
where, for the first time, they unexpectedly met 
another of their countrymen, McDonald, who had 
been lodged in another part of the town. They 
were all taken away by Commander Glynn. 

The story of the above-mentioned Ronald 
McDonald is so unique as to be worthy of further 
notice. His life and character-sketch have been 
penned by a number of writers. (R. E. Lewis, 
Educational Conquest of the Far East, 1 903; also 
Mrs. Eva Emery Dye, McDonald of Oregon, 1906.) 
Bom in Astoria, Oregon, this son of a Chinook 
princess and a Scotch employe of the Hudson Bay 
Company had in his childhood probably heard 
the country of Japan frequently mentioned, or 
had in all likelihood seen the Japanese who in 183 1 
were drifted ashore at the mouth of the Columbia 
River. In 1845, when in his twenties, he shipped 
at Sag Harbour in a whale-boat, the Plymouth. He 
made an arrangement with the captain that, when 
they neared the coast of Japan, he should be left 
alone in a small boat, so contrived that he could 
capsize it himself. It was his intention to cast 



IVelations Prior to Perry 273 

himself ashore and obtain some knowledge of the 
land and the people of this terra incognita. He 
was accordingly set adrift, and coasted along the 
shore for a day or two, when he discerned some 
fishermen at a distance. He beckoned to them, 
and, as they approached, he jumped into their 
boat and landed with them about twenty-five 
miles from Soya in Hokkaido. During the eight 
days that he remained under the roof of the fisher- 
men, he was treated most kindly; but the good 
people, fearing that they were disloyal to the law 
in harbouring a foreigner, notified an officer of his 
presence, and, when he came, poor McDonald was 
taken to Matsumae and afterwards transferred to 
Nagasaki. In each of these places, he received 
reasonable attention. Lodging was provided for 
him in a temple, and, though narrowly watched, 
he was not treated like a prisoner but was allowed 
to occupy himself in teaching English. 

The very year (1848) that the crew of the Ladoga 
were wrecked and McDonald of the Plymouth 
succeeded in landing (both of these ships were on 
whaling voyages), three American sailors belong- 
ing to another whaler — the Trident — were wrecked 
on one of the Kurile Islands. They, together with 
some twenty-seven English seamen who had also 
been wrecked while out whaling, were returned 
home through the Dutch factory. 

That the narrow cleft in the sealed door of 
Japan, into which Perry drove his wedge of diplo- 
macy, was the rescue of American whalers, Mr. 
18 



274 THe Japanese Nation 

Fillmore implies in his address before the Buffalo 
Historical Society: ''The proceedings which re- 
sulted in the opening of Japan sprang from a 
wrong perpetrated by that nation and which, like 
many other wrongs, seems to have resulted in a 
great good." 

There were causes other than the mere safety of 
whalers which led to the inception of the American 
expedition to Japan. On the one hand, the rise 
of industrial and commercial commonwealths on 
the Pacific, the discovery of gold in California, the 
increasing trade with China, the development of 
steam navigation — ^necessitating coal depots and 
ports for shelter, — ^the opening of highways across 
the isthmus of Central America, the missionary 
enterprises on the Asiatic continent, the rise of the 
Hawaiian Islands ; on the other hand, the awaken- 
ing knowledge of foreign nations among the ruling 
class in Japan, the news of the British victory in 
China, the growth of European settlements in the 
Pacific, the dissemination of Western science among 
a progressive class of scholars, the advice from the 
Dutch Government to discontinue the antiquated 
policy of exclusion — all these testified that the 
fulness of time was at hand for Japan to turn a new 
page in her history. 

Intelligent interest was now aroused on this side 
of the Pacific in the question of opening Japan. 
We must remember that the middle of the last 
century was the era of American clippers. In 
the year 1848, Robert J. Walker, then Secretary 



Relations Prior to Perry 275 

of the Treasury, called public attention to ''Japan, 
highly advanced in civilisation, containing fifty 
millions of people, separated but two weeks by 
steam from our western coast. ... Its com- 
merce," he continues, ''can be secured to us by 
persevering and peaceful efforts." 

During the next year, Aaron Haight Palmer of 
New York, who accumulated what was at that time 
a vast amount of information respecting Oriental 
nations, in his capacity as Director of the American 
and Foreign Agency of New York (1830-47), saw 
the great necessity of establishing commercial re- 
lations with the East, and sent memorials upon 
the subject to the President and the Secretary of 
State. He was backed by memorials from the 
principal merchants of New York and Baltimore. 
In his letter to Secretary Clayton, on the plan of 
opening Japan, he recommends four measures to 
be followed: (i) to demand full and ample indem- 
nity for the ship-wrecked American seamen who 
had been unjustly treated; (2) to insist upon the 
proper care for any American who might from any 
misfortune repair to the coast of Japan: (3) to 
enforce the opening of ports for commerce and for 
the establishment of consulates; (4) to claim the 
privilege of establishing coaling stations, and also 
the right of whaling without molestation. Mr. 
Palmer says that, in the event of non-compliance 
with the above on the part of the Shogun, a strict 
blockade of Yedo Bay should be established. 

James Glynn, who had for two years been 



276 THe Japanese Nation 

cruising about the North Pacific Ocean, and who, 
as we have seen, had had opportunity to learn 
something of the Japanese people, writing in 185 1 
of the prospect of Chinese trade, speaks of the 
absolute necessity for a coal depot on the coast of 
Japan; and in his letter expresses a strong belief in 
the possibihty of securing such a depot by proper 
negotiation, and of eventually opening the whole 
Empire. 

About this time a newspaper article concerning 
some Japanese waifs who had been picked up at 
sea by the bark Auckland, Captain Jennings, and 
brought to San Francisco, attracted the attention 
of Commodore AuHck. He submitted a proposal 
to the Government that it should take advantage 
of this incident to open commercial relations 
with the Empire, or at least . to manifest the 
friendly feelings of this country. This proposal 
was made on the ninth of May, 1851. Daniel 
Webster was then Secretary of State, and in him 
Aulick found a ready friend. The opinions of 
Commander Glynn and Mr. Palmer as authorities 
on questions connected with Japan, were asked. 
Their letters on this occasion evince keen diplo- 
matic sagacity. 

Clothed with full power to negotiate and sign 
treaties, and furnished with a letter from President 
Fillmore to the Emperor, Commodore Aulick was 
on the eve of departure when, for some reason, he 
was prevented. Thus the project which was set on 
foot at his suggestion was obstructed just as it was 



Relations Prior to Perry 277 

about to be accomplished and another man, 
perhaps better fitted for the undertaking, entered 
into his labours. 

But by relating the achievement of Perry, I 
shall trespass beyond the limit I have set to this 
narrative, which is to concern itself with American- 
Japanese intercourse prior to Perry's advent. 



CHAPTER XI 

THE RELATIONS BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES 

AND JAPAN 

THE well-known French historian Michelet, 
speaking of great geographical explorations 
and discoveries, ends one of his perorations with 
these words: 

** Who opened to men the great distant navigation? 
Who revealed the great ocean and marked out its 
zones and its liquid highways? Who discovered the 
secrets of the globe?" And he answers: ''The whale 
and the whaler. ... It was the whale that emanci- 
pated the fishermen and led them afar. It led them 
onward and onward still, until they found it, after 
having almost unconsciously passed from one world 
to the other." 

President Fillmore, in whose administration 
Commodore Perry was dispatched to Japan, con- 
firms this rhetorical statement of Michelet 's. 

Let me briefly recapitulate the events that led 
up to the oft-repeated story of Perry's expedition. 

That whaHng was a great industry during a 

278 



America and Japan 279 

substantial portion of the last two centuries, 
especially among the New England people, is well 
known. Then again, those who were unfortunate 
enough to be wrecked had no hospitable shores 
upon which to land. 

To succour the whalers and to help and protect 
their industry, was the main motive of the United 
States Government in initiating an expedition to 
Japan. Before any official step was taken in this 
direction, some private American citizens had 
visited Japan in the service of the Dutch East 
India Company. The first suggestion of sending 
an official envoy emanated from Commodore 
Porter, but without tangible result. When, in 
1846, Commodore Biddle was accredited by Presi- 
dent Polk to the Shogunal Court at Yedo, to as- 
certain how far her ports were accessible, — the 
interest in Japan obviously marked an advance 
from talk among whalers to grave counsel in 
Washington. The acquisition of California, its 
sudden development upon the discovery of gold, 
and the constantly increasing trade with China, 
almost eclipsed the importance of the whaling in- 
dustry, but brought into prominence the need 
of opening up intercourse with our country. 

Five years elapsed before any definite plan was 
formulated. In 1851, as we have seen, Commo- 
dore Matthew Calbraith Perry was appointed to 
undertake the mission. He was the younger 
brother of the more celebrated Admiral Perry, 
the hero of the Lake War of 18 12. 



28o TKe Japanese Nation 

I have often wished and tried to find where 
"public opinion" stood when the United States 
Government decided to send forth Perry's expe- 
dition. A Washington correspondent writes in a 
Philadelphia paper: ''There is no money in the 
treasury for the conquest [mark the term, if you 
please] of the Japanese Empire, and the adminis- 
tration will hardly be disposed to pursue such a 
romantic notion." Only two days before the 
expedition sailed, the Baltimore Sun correspond- 
ent wrote from Washington: ''It will sail about 
the same time with Rufus Porter's aerial ship," 
and even after it had sailed, he advises "aban- 
doning this humbug, for it has become a matter 
of ridicule abroad and at home." 

Not less sarcastic are the English comments. 
The London Times doubts "whether the Emperor 
of Japan would receive Commodore Perry with 
most indignation or most contempt," and om- 
niscient Punch insisted that "Perry must open 
the Japanese ports, even if he has to open his 
own." "For ourselves," says the London Sun, 
"we look forward to that result with some such 
interest as we might suppose would be awakened 
among the generality, were a balloon to soar off to 
one of the planets under the direction of some 
experienced aeronaut." Another London con- 
temporary "cannot agree with an American 
journalist in thinking such a small force (two 
thousand men) will be sufficient to coerce a vain, 
ignorant, semi-barbarous, and sanguinary nation of 



America and Japan 281 

thirty millions of people." In his queer and 
quaint Almanac for 1852, the so-called Prophet 
Zadkiel notes: *'A total eclipse of the Sun, visible 
chiefly in the eastern and northern parts of Asia. 
The greatest eclipse at 3 h. 24 m. a.m., December 
1 1 th, Greenwich time. ... It will" produce great 
mortality among camels and horses in the East, 
also much fighting and warlike doings, and I judge 
that it will carry war into the peaceful vales of 
Japan, for there, too, do the men of the West follow 
the track of gain, seeking the bubble reputation, 
even in the cannon's mouth." 

Looking through a number of newspapers and 
periodicals of the time, I am struck with the 
absence of public sympathy concerning an enter- 
prise of which the United States can so nobly and 
so justly boast. 

If history is philosophy teaching by example, 
certainly examples were not lacking to show that 
the newspaper fear of conquest or war did not 
materialise — and may we not compare Zadkiel' s 
prophecy with a recent pamphlet by one Johndro 
of Rochester (which I mentioned in a former 
chapter) purporting to be an astrological evidence 
of war with Japan, and which commands our re- 
spect for its copious illustrations and diagrams, 
but above all for the profuse use of capital letters ! 

For some of us, history has written more clearly 
than the stars that Perry's mission was conceived 
in peace and concluded in peace. When I say 
this, I mean peace between the two nations 



282 The Japanese Nation 

concerned. In another sense, peace there was none. 
When the treaty of peace was signed, there was 
great excitement throughout our country, followed 
by the assassination of those who took a respon- 
sible part in the negotiations, and, later on, by 
civil war. 

On the part of America, Perry's treaty brought 
no satisfaction. Naval officers laughed at his 
haughty demeanour during the negotiations ; com- 
mercial men complained that trade did not develop 
at once. And no wonder, when we read that, as 
early as 1852, a direct annual trade of two hundred 
million dollars was expected, — an amount which is 
six times the sum which America exports to Japan 
at present ! 

It must be admitted that the treaty made by 
Perry was not a commercial agreement. The 
main object at which he aimed was the establish- 
ment of a coaling station. The consummation of 
a commercial treaty was reserved for a man who 
was sent out to put into effect the articles proposed 
by Perry. This country is to be congratulated 
upon having sent the right men to Japan. Seldom 
have your representatives been good diplomats, if 
we confine the calling of diplomats to Wotton's 
definition of them as "honest men sent out to other 
countries to tell lies." They were greater as men 
than as diplomats, if Wotton's definition be ac- 
cepted. Townsend Harris in particular was a man- 
of whom this country may well be proud. A man 
of sterling qualities, of honesty of purpose, and 



America and Japan 283 

withal of kindly disposition, he proved himself the 
best friend, adviser and teacher of Japan, in the 
early and stormy days of her foreign intercourse. 

During the period immediately following the 
opening of the country to foreign trade, the rise 
in prices was tremendous. In two years, some 
things rose three hundred per cent. Gold, which 
used to be exchanged for four times its weight in 
silver, suddenly rose to eight, ten, sixteen times 
its former value. Naturally, only people greedy 
of sudden gain flocked to the ports; respectable 
houses even refused the request of the Government 
to deal with foreign merchants. Such a state of 
affairs did not tend to convince the Japanese 
nation of the blessings of Western civilisation — 
especially as many of the foreign representatives 
behaved in a way quite at variance' with our ideas 
of justice or good-will. But, through all the 
vicissitudes of anti-foreign demonstration. Town- 
send Harris stood an unwavering friend to Japan. 

At one time, when all his diplomatic colleagues 
left Tokyo (then Yedo), being warned by our 
authorities of plots of assassination and incen- 
diarism, Townsend Harris alone remained, and 
without a single American guard at that, placing 
his reliance upon only a few Japanese sentinels. 
When his own secretary was killed on the street 
and he was requested not to go out of his house, 
he paced the wooden verandah where he took 
exercise until it was worn by his steps. 

It was during this anti-foreign period (1862-64) 



284 The Japanese Nation 

that the feudal lord of Choshiu fired upon an 
American steamer that passed through the strait 
of Shimonoseki, which was within his province. 
Later on, a French and a Dutch man-of-war were 
similarly treated. Then naturally followed an 
alHance of these Powers to bombard the town. 
The Lord of Choshiu was badly beaten. All this 
ended in Japan's paying an indemnity of three 
million dollars. The share for the United States 
was nearly eight hundred thousand dollars. This 
sum was about forty times greater than the dam- 
ages which she sustained, which really amounted to 
some twenty thousand dollars. One might think 
this transaction was a profitable bargain. So far 
the dealing does not seem fair ; but there is a sequel 
to the story. A few years later, educators in this 
country began to agitate for the return of this 
sum to Japan. Men like Dr. Northrop of Yale 
wrote, lectured, and preached regarding this course. 
Men like Secretary Seward warmly approved of it, 
and the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the House 
of Representatives reported that the remittance of 
this indemnity would result in the establishment 
of more intimate relations between the two coun- 
tries and would ultimately prove of great benefit. 
If you ask me how this money was spent when 
it came back to us, I assure you that it was not all 
blown ofE in the form of gunpowder. "Cast thy 
bread upon the waters and thou shalt find it after 
many days." If you visit our country, the first 
port at which you anchor is the exposed harbour 



America and Japan 285 

of Yokohama, and, as you begin to wonder how a 
ship can anchor there, you will notice a long stretch 
of breakwater, within which you will soon find a 
haven of safety. After long deliberation, it was 
decided by our people that the money you returned 
to us should be expended in some work that would 
perpetuate in lasting, useful, and visible form the 
good-will of this country, and to this end, the 
breakwater in the harbour of Yokohama testifies. 

The spirit which actuated the United States to 
return the indemnity of Shimonoseki dictated all 
its dealings with Japan under successive presi- 
dencies. General Grant proved himself an unfail- 
ing friend ; not only during his tenure of office, but 
even after he retired to private life, his friendship 
never flagged. When making his tour around the 
world in 1880, he made a long sojourn in Japan. 
In the repeated interviews he had with our 
Emperor, he won the absolute confidence of our 
Sovereign, and the advice Grant then gave has 
made a deep impression upon the Emperor's policy. 
A man of the camp and the battle-field. President 
Grant served the cause of peace when he mediated 
between China and Japan on the question of the 
Loo-Choo Islands. 

To further illustrate this cordial relationship, 
take the cases of consular jurisdiction and of 
tariff autonomy — two questions which harassed 
our nation for a long time. Let me explain. 
When the treaty was first signed, Townsend Harris 
was averse to depriving Japan of the power of 



286 THe Japanese Nation 

enforcing its own laws upon foreigners; but, as 
our laws were at the time crude in the extreme, he 
proposed extra-territorial rights for his country- 
men. This example was naturally followed by all 
European Powers. As for the second question, the 
tariff — having had no foreign trade regulations prior 
to the Commercial Treaty with the United States, 
we were ignorant of the means of raising a revenue 
by tariff, much more of protecting native indus- 
tries. Commerce with the Chinese and the Dutch 
had been conducted upon a basis of fair trade. 
Townsend Harris first taught us to impose cus- 
toms duties. Instead of taking advantage of our 
ignorance, he carefully compiled a tariff-schedule, 
more with the interest of Japan in view than with 
that of America, — again showing a remarkable 
sense of equity. These tariff regulations were 
altered when the anti-foreign movement gave to 
the Treaty Powers an opportunity to further their 
claims for more advantages. 

To recover her judicial autonomy by the sum- 
mary abolition of foreign jurisdiction and to regain 
the power of fixing her own tariff -rates, were the 
fundamental objects of our treaty revision in the 
eighties of the last century. Without these powers, 
no country can be said to be on an equal footing 
with the rest of the world. Indeed, she can never 
aspire to belong to the "family of great nations" 
and will forever be treated as an inferior and a 
stranger. 

Japan decided to frame all her laws on Western 



America and Japan. 287 

principles ; so that the Treaty Powers might recog- 
nise the equity of her legislation. After every 
preparation had been made to claim legal and 
tariff autonomy, when we proposed to the Powers 
that the treaties should be revised, it was the 
United States that most readily acceded to our 
desires, and though the revised treaty was first 
signed with England, everybody concerned knew 
that the consent and the backing of the United 
States were a powerful factor. Mr. Cleveland, in 
1884, expressed entire willingness to revise what- 
ever was detrimental to the integrity and interests 
of Japan in the treaties then existing. 

Nor was Japan always the passive recipient of 
American good-will. In Korea, in the last two 
decades of the past century, how often did Ameri- 
can citizens have to take shelter under the roof of 
our Legation, for protection from mobs ! 

Such an act implies more than mere interna- 
tional courtesy, or at least it can be made a tie 
of more than rigid formality. So it was during 
the war between China and Japan. Japan asked 
the United States to look after our interests in 
China, and China asked the same of the United 
States in Japan. 

More than once has the United States performed 
the good office of aiding us to solve intricate inter- 
national problems. Of General Grant's service, 
I have spoken. Even before his time, in 1871, 
when a complication arose between China and 
Japan regarding Formosa, and we were obliged 



288 THe Japanese Nation 

to send out an armed expedition to that island, 
General Le Gendre, the American Consul in Amoy, 
rendered valuable aid in making clear to the world, 
so to speak, our real intentions and attitude. 

At the close of the Japan-China War, the pres- 
ence of the Honorable John W. Foster, in the 
capacity of adviser to Li Hung-Chang, served the 
cause of Japan as much as that of China, in bring- 
ing about a satisfactory solution of the differences 
between the two nations. 

As for the attitude of America in the Russo- 
Japanese War, the event is still so fresh in your 
memories that it is needless to review it. It was 
in 1905 that this great war ended and peace was 
concluded at Portsmouth through the good offices 
of President Roosevelt. 

Only six years have passed since America 
crowned her traditional friendship of half a cen- 
tury towards Japan, with her unstinted sympathy 
during the Russo-Japanese War ! Only six years ! 
■ — a short period in a nation's history, even in these 
days of steam and electricity. If Rome was not 
built in a day, a Nero or a Vandal can destroy it in 
a day. Are there not Neros and Vandals in the 
twentieth century, who delight in working havoc 
among friendly nations? In the brief interval, 
mischief has been brewing in some quarters to 
bring about disruption of our historic relations. 
Some ominous prophecies have been uttered that 
a war between Japan and America is inevitable in 
a few years. * ' The best of prophets of the future is 



America and Japan 289 

the past ** (Byron), and looking back upon the past, 
who has cause to fear? Which of the parties has 
wronged the other? Those who know nothing of 
the past, strain their eyes to discover the sHghtest 
possible cause for trouble. They represent Japan 
as harbouring territorial ambition, of casting an 
evil eye upon Hawaii and the Philippines, — or 
nearer, upon Magdalena Bay! 

We have a proverb, ''Fear creates hobgoblins 
out of shadows." The most unsophisticated 
Japanese labourers, toiling in the sugar planta- 
tions of Hawaii or in the tobacco fields of Luzon, 
are elevated in the eyes of the doubting to the 
dignity of military spies. Not a single gunboat 
is built in Japan but is constructed as an evi- 
dence that preparations are in train for the 
bombardment of San Francisco or the seizure 
of Manila. If we buy rice from China — which we 
annually do — in quantities greater than the usual 
amount, because of floods in our interior, that, too, 
is distorted into an indication of victualing the 
navy. Certainly Japan is flattered beyond her 
deserts when the world thinks that she can lightly 
go into war with a foreign Power or take Hawaii 
and the Philippines, in spite of all that she has to 
carry on in Korea, Manchuria, and Saghalien! 
The American public has forgotten the agreement 
between this country and Japan, signed only four 
years ago, November 31, 1908, by which instru- 
ment each Government promises to respect the 
territorial possessions of the other on the Pacific. 

19 



290 The Japanese Nation 

This document fully implies community of purpose 
and practical co-operation in Far Eastern affairs. 
The agreement further pledges that the two Gov- 
ernments, in case anything should occur to menace 
the status quo of either, will communicate with each 
other, in order to arrive at a mutual understanding 
regarding the measures to be taken. 

So much for the terror of Japan's territorial 
aggression upon American dominions! 

What other possible cause is there for rupture 
between us? 

The California question ! Much ado was made 
about nothing. When facts are all carefully sifted, 
we shall be forcibly reminded of an old Latin 
proverb — Parturiunt montes; nascetur ridiculus 
mus. (The mountains are in labour; a ridiculous 
mouse will be brought forth.) 

The so-called anti-Japanese crusade was started 
and organised by a certain Tveitmoe, who, when 
still in his native country, Norway, served it by 
working in prison as a convict and who is at 
present serving his adopted country in the same 
capacity. His habit of spending much time in 
a penitentiary seems to have been contagious. 
Anyhow, it is a striking coincidence — ^let it be 
said in honour of the American judiciary! — that 
three or four other people who took prominent 
part in the anti- Japanese movement in 1906 and 
1907 are all serving their term in jail— and this 
despite the fact that Japanese laws are not in force 
in California ! Another agitator, one Fowler, who 



A.merica and Japan 291 

distinguished himself as Secretary of the Japanese- 
Korean Exclusive League, had not been long on 
the stage before he was adjudged insane by Judge 
Kellogg (who, it may also be remarked, is not 
a Japanese justice) and was committed to an 
asylum. These ''martyrs'* are not the only mice 
that were brought forth from the mountains of the 
Golden State, when they were in labour. With a 
fund supplied from some mischief -making source, 
they went about declaring impending danger to 
American civilisation from the incoming of the 
Japanese; but I wish to make it clear that their 
imprisonment has nothing to do with their atti- 
tude against our people. I must state in justice to 
the great fairness of mind shown by these men that 
they did not attribute to Japanese importation 
or machinations the San Francisco earthquake! 
Even now, anti- Japanese sentiment sometimes 
makes its appearance to adorn the platform of 
some office-seekers in times of local election, or 
when work is slack and propagandists are well 
paid. Otherwise all is quiet along the Pacific 
Coast, and the American orchardists and the 
farmers, as Mr. Mackenzie in his official capacity 
as Labor Commissioner of that State has reported, 
are regretting the decreasing supply of Japanese 
labour. 

Viewed not only as a California problem but as 
a matter of national significance, the immigration 
question is certainly more serious; but its serious 
feature is largely of an abstract and not of a 



292 



THe Japanese Nation 



concrete character. Our labourers began to come to 
California in 1886, and their immigration steadily 
increased until they numbered thirty thousand in 
1907. Thirty thousand is not in itself a small 
number, and might have given anxiety if the 
labourers had settled in one place; but we must 
remember that thirty thousand is no more than 
one four-hundredth part of about one million two- 
hundred thousand immigrants of all nationaHties 
who came to the United States in that one year 
of 1907. In no year has Japanese immigration 
reached two per cent, of the total, whereas Austro- 
Hungarians, ItaHans, and Russians usually exceed 
twenty per cent, of it. If it is feared that our 
people confine themselves to the Pacific Coast, 
official returns should comfort you with the 
assurance that those who remain there are only 
about one-sixth or one-seventh of the number of 
the European immigrants who reach these Western 
shores. As to their character, the majority of 
them are farmers and farm-labourers, just what 
California orchards and farms are most in need of. 
Then there are a considerable number of pro- 
fessional men. As to financial competence, the 
official returns show that the average sum of 
money brought by each Japanese (the figure is for 
1906, which was by no means an exceptional year) 
is thirty-one dollars, — smaller than the fifty-eight 
dollars of the English or the forty-one dollars of 
the Germans, but larger than the sum brought by 
the Russians, Italians, Irish, Scandinavians, Poles, 



America and Japan 293 

and some others. As to our labourers becoming 
public charges, here again we turn to the official 
report of the Immigration Bureau and read with 
some surprise that in 1906 there was one Japanese 
received into the hospital for treatment, as against 
two thousand one hundred and twenty-two 
Italians, two thousand four hundred and ninety- 
five Hebrews, or one thousand Poles. If our 
people do not (cannot!) compete with members 
of other nationalities in the field of public relief, 
neither do they compete with American labourers 
in the field of employment. They are mostly 
engaged in work which American labourers shun — 
agriculture. 

I have inflicted upon you some dry figures, hop- 
ing that they will reveal to unprejudiced minds 
how much alarm has been created for so little 
cause ! Let it be far from me to make any attempt 
to show that our immigrants are better than those 
of other nationalities, — though a close study of 
the Immigration Commissioner's Reports and the 
Reports of the State Labour Commissioner of 
California may point that way. I am not here to 
advocate their cause. If I can only make it clear 
that they are not worse than European immigrants 
and that they are not a menace to American 
institutions— that is all I care to prove, or at least 
to intimate. 

As to restrictions to be imposed on the free en- 
trance of foreigners, Japan recognises that America 
or any other country has a right to frame its own 



294 THe Japanese Nation 

laws concerning immigration into its own terri- 
tory, and, recognising this, she offered to restrict 
on her side the departure of an undesirable ele- 
ment of her labouring population to this country. 
She has kept to the letter the terms of the so-called 
gentlemen's agreement on this matter. The most 
prejudiced opponent of Japanese immigration has 
no reason for complaint, for more of our people are 
leaving the Pacific Coast than are arriving there. 
Many an American has expressed the opinion 
that our Government is carrying out its word 
too rigorously and scrupulously. At any rate the 
immigration question is practically solved. 

For want of a plausible cause for alienation 
between the two nations, ingenious minds have 
tried to find one in China and Manchuria. They 
claim American interests clash with those of Japan. 
I fail to see what American interests are meant. 
If they refer to trade, I only wish that America 
had trade there large enough to make it worth 
while for us to compete with. Our trade in Man- 
churia totals about twenty million dollars per 
annum, and that of all other countries put together 
(excepting the trade of China) amounts to only 
seven miUions. If by interest is meant American 
capital, I should like to know how much of real 
American capital is invested there. When it is 
understood that the loan forced upon China by 
the Four Powers is in a precarious state, American 
capital will be glad to find investment elsewhere — 
nearer home in South America — ^where Germans 



America and Japan 295 

are pushing on, the while Americans are talking of 
the Far East. If interests mean Americans resi- 
dent in Manchuria, the whole American popula- 
tion there can be put in a couple of Pullman cars, 
fifty-two Americans as against forty thousand 
Japanese. 

Reports have been current in newspapers and 
periodicals, to the effect that the commercial ad- 
vance of Japanese in Manchuria was made under 
selfish discrimination and in flagrant violation of 
"Open Door" promises. It is a remarkable fact 
that those who make this charge against us never 
cite a concrete case, never give the exact date or 
data, to substantiate their accusation. It is 
always by deductive or rather seductive logic that 
they try to prove it. They state that Japanese 
merchants are making headway there, whereas 
the accusers themselves (all honourable men, of 
course) made a failure of their own enterprises — 
therefore the Japanese must have resorted to 
clandestine methods; the same argument that 
was used against Othello's success. Our answer 
must necessarily be very much like his. The truth 
is that our present advance — and we also expect 
reverses, according to the natural course of com- 
merce — ^is so simple and plain that it may well serve 
for the school-room illustration of a principle in 
political economy. It is this : Manchuria produces 
an abundance of soy beans. Until a few years 
ago, they were not used in Europe or America, and 
Japan was almost the only purchaser of them. A 



296 THe Japanese Nation 

good deal of the trade in the interior of Manchuria 
is transacted through barter, or, if with money, 
by the use of small silver coins, and, buying most, 
we sold most. There is in the whole transaction 
no further mystery than this, that in all exchange 
he who takes most, gives most. There might 
indeed be mystery if we should buy Manchuria's 
beans without selling anything in return. The 
Mitsui firm, who conduct the bean trade, na- 
turally, and wisely too, as they imagined, tried 
to open a new market for it in Europe, and 
succeeded so well that the oil-seed crushers of 
England found the soy beans excellent for their 
purpose, as well as for cattle feed. As the demand 
for these beans increased year by year, British 
firms began to deal directly with Manchurian 
farmers after the manner of the Japanese — with 
the result that beans form a considerable portion 
of Hull imports, and that English trade is now 
making its way farther and farther into the interior 
of Manchuria, at the expense of ours. The door is 
wide open; there is no reason why American 
trade should not enter, — the more so, as flour and 
kerosene oil (just the articles we ourselves pur- 
chase from this country) are in great demand 
there. No, there is no infernal magic or under- 
hand discrimination in our trade in Manchuria. 
Our methods are such as any other people can 
adopt, and when they adopt them and succeed, we 
shall perhaps appear less villainous. 

If evil reports regarding our advance in Man- 



America and Japan 297 

churia should reach their ears, it will pay lovers 
of peace and of justice to take the trouble of tracing 
them to their sources ; for I myself have heard them 
emanating from those who failed through their own 
incapacity or miscalculation. There is nothing so 
illuminating in historical research of any kind as 
to go straight to the Quellen! 

At present, at least, as far as commercial rivalry 
is concerned, one will seek in vain in Manchuria for 
a cause important enough to cause a rupture of 
friendship between the United States and Japan. 

A rather childish belief prevails among some 
credulous people that simply because Japan has 
distinguished herself twice in two decades as a 
military power, she may engage in war at any 
time upon the slightest provocation. 

Why we went to war with China and why with 
Russia are matters of history so well established 
as to leave no doubt regarding the motive of 
Japan. But even in undertaking these wars, just 
and justifiable as they were, we did not act hastily. 
In the good old Book, it is written: ''What king, 
as he goes to encounter another king in war, will 
not sit down first and take counsel whether he is 
able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh 
against him with twenty thousand? " 

We believe we are sufficiently sane to count the 
cost of a war. What can we gain by mobilising 
our army or our navy, as some people delight in 
prophesying, against the United States? — send a 
whole fleet across the Pacific or concentrate our 



298 The Japanese Nation 

battle-ships in the PhiHppines, unmindful that we 
shall thereby expose our back naked, as it were, to 
China and Russia; unmindful of the most impor- 
tant trade we have— the trade with this country; 
unmindful of the enormous debt we already have 
and of the still greater financial strain which would 
accrue; unmindful of all the cordial relations of the 
past, even though these may be largely a matter 
of sentiment, but none the less a strong sentiment ? 

Our statesmen and our populace know better 
than to take such a rash step. They know full 
well that what they want is peace. 

I cannot more fitly describe the sentiment of 
our nation or more appropriately close this chapter 
than by relating my last conversation with our 
leading statesman and recent Premier — Prince 
Katsura. A fortnight before I left Japan on the 
present mission, I spent some hours with him, 
and when I asked his opinion regarding the rumours 
of war with America, he answered by saying : 

"You know, Mr. Nitobe, more or less of my career. 
In my teens, I fought in the war of the Restoration as 
a private, in the old feudal fashion. As I grew up, I 
studied military science and art in Germany, and in 
our war with China I led an army as a general. Then 
later on, in the Russo-Japanese War, I led the whole 
nation as Prime Minister. I say this not to brag, but 
to remind you that I am not a novice in the matter of 
wars. I know them well — too well. I know all the 
horrors of war and the worse horrors of its after- 
effects. It is largely people who have never seen war 



America and Japan 299 

who talk glibly of it. I wonder if the newspaper men 
who write of it really know what it means, what it 
involves. As for myself, I cannot advocate it. As 
long as I am in office — and even after leaving office, as 
long as I have any influence in national affairs — I 
assure you, there shall be no war with America." 



CHAPTER XII 

AMERICAN INFLUENCE IN THE FAR EAST 

PRIOR to the advent of Gushing to China 
(1884) and of Perry to Japan (1852), while 
the British in the Far East were engrossed with 
their poHcy of forcing the opium trade on the 
Celestial Kingdom, an American merchant of 
Macao, Mr. C. W. King, was engaged, as we have 
seen in a previous lecture, on his own initiative and 
responsibility in an attempt to unlock the doubly- 
barred portals of the Japanese Empire so that 
foreign commerce might find entrance. This he 
was bent upon accomplishing by peaceful means, 
indeed by the most humane of means — ^by taking 
with him in his own ship, the Morrison, seven ship- 
wrecked Japanese subjects, who had been thrown 
ashore on the Pacific Coast of the American con- 
tinent. 

Like a few previous attempts made by his 
countrymen, Mr. King's mission ended in failure — 
a failure, which was, as it were, but the repulse of 
a lesser wave in the ever-swelling tide of the ocean 
of history. On his return, he appealed to "the 

300 



American, Influence 301 

champions of his country's benevolence" not to 
despair of opening up intercourse with Japan, 
adding, in the most earnest tone, that Great 
Britain and the United States divide the maritime 
influence of the world and that "America is the 
hope of Asia beyond the Malay Peninsula, that 
her noblest effort will find a becoming theatre 
there." In his mind's eye, he could already dis- 
cern, rising at the gateways of the sun, a grand 
scene of human probation, the vast colosseum of 
the moral world, as he called it. He predicted the 
time when Japan would more readily yield to and 
repay the efforts of America than China, and that 
the latter could best be reached through the 
channels of the former. 

Such was the first audible utterance — albeit 
not so clearly recognised as it deserved — of an 
American citizen, and for aught I know it voiced 
the sentiment of his people as the avantcourier of 
Western progress. 

A whole generation, as measured by the royal 
psalmist, has since passed away, and in these 
three-score years and ten, the sun has witnessed 
marvellous changes, such as it never before 
witnessed in its career around this planet — 
changes that have transformed the face and the 
spirit of the Far East. True to the traditions 
of their fathers and pressed by the necessity of 
self-preservation, both China and Japan have in 
that interval reverted more than once to the 
tactics of exclusivism and resorted to weapons 



302 



THe Japanese Nation 



of violence in order to close the doors they once 
opened. 

No cannon-balls have done more effective work 
in the history of civilisation than those fired by the 
combined fleet of Great Britain, Holland, France, 
and the United States upon the forts and batteries 
of Shimonoseki, in the autumn days of 1863. That 
they did not fail to strike the defences of this 
harbour, is a matter of small concern. The balls 
pierced farther than the bulwarks of stone. They 
penetraf ed the very walls of exclusivism. Hence- 
forth, there were apertures through which West- 
ern influence could find entrance. Civilisation is 
like a fluid that follows the law of osmosis. Cul- 
tures of different densities, when separated by a 
porous partition, flow each into the other for final 
equable diffusion. Inequalities in culture are not 
tolerated in modern civilisation. ^'America is not 
civil," says Emerson, "while Africa is barbarous." 

Through the apertures made by the Shimonoseki 
bombardment, there flowed into Japan the ideas 
and ideals of the Occident. In China, owing to 
the magnitude of her territory and population, 
the process was not so simple. The more redoubt- 
able walls of Chinese exclusion had to suffer re- 
peated assaults, starting with the Opium War, 
through the vicissitudes of the Taiping Rebellion 
and the war with Japan and ending with the Boxer 
movement, before perforations were made large 
enough for osmosis freely to begin. Indeed, in the 
case of our great neighbour, instead of the steady 



American Influence 303 

influx of a regenerating stream effecting her deliver- 
ance, we see that her moss-grown ramparts are 
crumbling before the sudden and devastating tor- 
rent of a republican deluge. 

The soul of Japan, quickly responding to the 
impulse from the West and rising to the conscious- 
ness of her destiny, adjusted her institutions, social 
and political, to the demands of the age, and set 
forth on a new career of what sociologists like to 
call telic progress. China is now fast following 
in the same path, though with more painful steps, 
paying higher toll for her long delay. She has but 
newly learned what Japan learned fifty years ago, 
that contact and communion with the West under 
external pressure bring no guarantee of safety or 
growth. 

What part in this epochal interchange between 
the East and the West, between the Pacific and 
the Atlantic — the moulding influence of knowl- 
edge, ideas, and institutions — does the United 
States play? Are the conditions in the Far East 
so radically changed that the words of Mr. King 
no longer voice the attitude of the American 
people? Has the phenomenal growth of its Pacific 
Coast so estranged the higher interests of China 
and Japan from the heart of this nation, that it now 
throws stones instead of offering bread? Has the 
acquisition of the Sandwich Islands so turned the 
thoughts of America that she now looks upon us as 
possible intruders and enemies? Has the entree 
of this country into the sphere of Asiatic politics 



304 TKe Japanese Nation 

brought about a deviation in public opinion from 
the viewpoint of a King to that of a Hobson? Is 
the Panama Canal, to the opening of which the 
Japanese and the Chinese are looking forward 
with great anticipations of trade — I ask, is the 
Panama Canal intended for a war-path or a trade 
route? 

There are voices heard on the American side of 
the Pacific, shrill and alarming, that a conflict, and 
an armed one at that, is inevitable between the 
East and the West. The ''Yellow Peril" scare, 
started by the Kaiser and the Czar, leaped over the 
British Islands, crossed the Atlantic, and found 
some adherents here. Managed by a paid propa- 
ganda, it has been preached and proclaimed by a 
host of minor prophets. 

What a far cry from the time when King made 
his appeal to "the champions of his country's 
benevolence"; from the later time when Dr. 
Samuel Wells Williams concluded, his account of 
the Perry expedition in these words: *'In the 
higher benefits likely to flow to the Japanese by 
their introduction into the family of civilised 
nations, I see a hundred-fold return for all the 
expenses of this expedition to the American 
Government," and from the still later day when 
Townsend Harris, Minister Bingham, Secretary 
Seward, Minister Burlinghame, and General Grant 
enunciated in no uncertain words the ethical 
principles which should guide their country in its 
dealings with the Far East. No, I cannot believe 



American Infliaence 305 

that this nation, still in the prime of manhood, 
could so easily forget the pledges and ideals of 
youth. Its assurances of friendship and of good 
will were not uttered as idle words of diplomacy. 

In 1851, at the time that Perry's expedition was 
still under contemplation, the English historian, 
Creasy, declared that American diplomacy in the 
East would be "bold, intrusive, and unscrupulous 
and that America would scarcely imitate the for- 
bearance shown by England at the end of her war 
with the Celestial Empire." Of the prophet, 
Zadkiel's quaint Almanac^ vaticinating dire mis- 
fortunes for Japan in the year 1852, we have 
already spoken. But the foreboding of historian 
and prophet alike, proved false. That its early 
spirit of justice and equity still guides this nation 
in its Oriental policy, is evidenced by the words of 
so recent and authoritative a writer as Captain 
Mahan. Speaking particularly of China, he says: I 
''Our influence, we believe — and have a right to 
believe — is for good ; it is the influence of a nation 
which respects the right of peoples to shape their' 
own destinies, pushing even to exaggeration its 
belief in their ability to do so." 

American influence in Asia cannot be otherwise 
than wholesome as long as it is exercised in infusing 
the vast mass of humanity there with the con- 
sciousness of their own dignity and mission — a 
task which Europe not only neglected, but posi- 
tively refused to perform on every occasion. Great 
and real progress must work from within, though 

20 



3o6 The Japanese Nation 

its first impulse may come from without. Unless 
it can intensify the inner impulse, external pressure 
only ends in making for a while a shallow dent on 
the surface. 

A culture that is forced upon an unwilling 
nation belongs to things of time "that have voices, 
speak and vanish." China knows this only too 
well. Spiritual power comes only through our 
own choosing. We are free to prefer a stone to 
bread, or a serpent to a fish. Men and nations are 
judged by the choice they make. The real differ- 
ence between the culture-grades of individuals as 
of ethnic groups is the one difference between 
their voluntary and their involuntary activities, — 
between compulsory adoption and reflective choice, 
between mechanical imitation and judicious selec- 
tion, between bondage and freedom. It has been 
said that Die Weltgeschichte ist das Weltgericht, — 
equally truly, though in a different sense of the 
term, may we not say that a nation's history is a 
nation's judgment? 

Any outside influence, to be permanent, must 
strike at the root of inner consciousness — the very 
bottom of sentient existence; at the core of per- 
sonality where man divests himself of every race 
distinction and stands on the grotmd common to 
the White and the Yellow, the Black and the 
Brown, and where there is "nor border, breed nor 
birth, though they come from the ends of the 
earth." 

It is by awakening in the Far Eastern mind, 



American Infliaence 307 

the sense of personal and national, responsibility, 
that America has imparted energy to its inertness 
— by suggesting to it that power which so emi- 
nently characterises the American people and 
which Professor Miinsterberg calls "the spirit of 
self-direction." It was this spirit of self-reliance 
and self- development which early passed through 
cannon holes into Oriental communities, and there 
leavening the leaders and the masses emancipated 
Japan from the iron shackles of convention and 
conformity, and which promises to put an end to 
the sleeping cycle of Cathay and lead that hoary 
nation to a new heaven and a new earth. 

In so doing America has only acted in a manner 
true to her love of fair play, which among her sons 
is, as one of their exponents very happily puts it, 
'*a kind of religion." It is a spirit of tolerance, or 
recognition of others' rights, which imposes on 
each the duty of regarding his fellow-men with 
impartiality and of taking the view, to borrow 
Dr. Henry Van Dyke's words again, that "any 
human system or order which interferes with this 
impartiality is contrary to the will of the Supreme 
Wisdom and Love." 

Diplomacy, conducted in consonance with these 
high principles, shed radiance at once far-reaching 
and benignant. This great feat America has 
achieved and can achieve to a still greater degree. 
Her noblest labour in the Far East lay in the new 
evaluation of the individual, arousing self-respect 
and teaching personal as well as political liberty, 



3o8 THe Japanese Nation 

with the result of the growth of national con- 
sciousness. 

It is a well-known fact that their acquaintance 
with the Declaration of Independence of the United 
States, was the disclosure of a new mine of thought 
to the makers of new Japan. The idea of the 
present Chinese Revolution is a republic after the 
pattern of the United States. 

In the light of the preceding statement, it is not 
difficult to perceive why European nations have 
found so little response among Eastern peoples. 
No wonder Mr. Meredith Townsend despairs of 
any lasting foothold of the West in the East. 
How many Christians would turn their left cheek 
when their right is struck! What people would 
willingly kiss the feet that tread upon them, be 
they never so beautifully shod ! 

The Roman god Terminus, in his palmiest days, 
drew a sacred circle around the Mediterranean, 
and its northern periphery touched the Black 
Forests; but in the course of a few centuries its 
charm was broken, and the august rule of divine 
Caesars left behind traces which are now of interest 
chiefly to archaeologists. When we compare the 
ruins of the Roman dominion, imposing as they 
are, with the immortal influence of Athens, which is 
carved deep upon the memory of Europe and is 
still exhibited in its noblest form, ** wherever," 
to quote from the famous eulogy of Macaulay, 
"literature consoles sorrow and assuages pain, 
wherever it brings gladness to eyes which fail with 



American Infl\aence 309 

wakefulness and tears, and ache for the dark house 
and the long sleep," we see that the influence won 
and exercised by the sword is destined to fade 
away as ''the captains and the kings depart.'* 
Territorial domination upheld by the sword is 
guaranteed no long lease of life. 

The best credential of American diplomacy in 
its early days in the Far East was the unsullied 
record of the United States in respect to territorial 
designs. In his day, Townsend Harris assured 
our Government in the following words : 

"The policy of the United States is different from 
that of other countries. She has no territory in the \^ 
East, neither does she desire to acquire any there. 
Her Government forbids obtaining possession in other 
parts of the world, and we have refused all the re- 
quests of distant countries to join our nation. " 

Though these words sound strange in view of 
the insular possessions of the United States, never- 
theless, they were honest words then and true. 
China, Japan, and Siam felt perfectly safe in their 
dealings with the United States. While they had 
ample reason to suspect all the approachments of 
European Powers only as steps to ultimate en- 
croachment, their offers of help as baits — a nation 
possessed of no greed for an inch of land, no thought 
for intervention in the internal order of a native 
community, was a pleasing discovery in Oriental 
eyes. Here lay the secret of the marvellous 



310 THe Japanese Nation 

success of American diplomacy, and an Oriental 
Lothario could on his part exclaim: ''Here or 
nowhere is America.'* 

The disinterested position which the United 
States holds or has held in foreign politics, her 
freedom from European entanglements and com- 
plications, has placed her in an attitude of supreme 
independence in diplomacy. She can initiate a 
policy and act with little reference to European 
balance of power. The very possibility of the free 
exercise of will, sanctioned by a history which 
shows that she has never abused it, gives to her a 
preponderating moral advantage. Having de- 
servedly gained a reputation for fair play, her 
judgment is summoned on occasions involving 
great issues. By the magic of her name, she can 
rally behind her a large following of European 
nations. We may recall in this connection names 
such as Seward, Grant, Cleveland, Hay, Foster, 
and Roosevelt. Mankind is always willing to 
follow a man or a nation in whose eyes there is 
no mud. America will continue to exercise ^ this 
power as long as her eyes and her hands are clean ; 
but the instant she stoops for a clod of earth, 
virtue will go out of her. 

Has then her prestige waned with her debut into 
the Eastern Hemisphere? Has she sold her birth- 
right of world-moderatorship and of Asiatic guard- 
ianship for a pottage of tropical islands? God 
forbid that a taste of new territory should infect 
her with the lust of milomania. Mr. Roosevelt 



American Inllxxence 311 

set an example of a novel American principle of 
colonial policy in San Domingo, and the Filipinos, 
now passing through the American school for self- 
government, may, in the fulness of time, rejoice 
in the completion of their tutelage and celebrate 
the day of their graduation by a grand convocation. 

With such a vision before us, we welcome the 
presence of the United States in Asiatic waters. 
We welcome her as she emerges from behind the 
rising sun and marches to her new seat under the 
mid-day sky. As far as China and Japan are con- 
cerned, they would rather see the Stars and Stripes 
float over those isles of fronded palms she now 
rules than any other flag. European nations are 
still trying to discover and devise suitable methods 
of administering their Asiatic possessions, and 
while none of them are satisfied with their own 
schemes and plans, it will be a valuable contribu- 
tion to the science of politics and the art of gov- 
ernment, if the United States should succeed with 
her "Holy Experiment" in the Philippines. 

The United States may by her mere presence 
exercise a salutary influence on the Far Eastern 
situation. Her position as an Asiatic Power 
entitles her more than ever to a voice in the par- 
liament of Asia. She may do nothing; but her 
mere presence will have a catalytic action for whole- 
some activity. It has latterly been broached in 
irresponsible quarters that Japan looks with jeal- 
ousy upon the naval growth of the United States. 
Why should we — as long as you have no designs 



312 THe Japanese Nation 

upon us — and why should you have any? It has 
been suggested that Japan fears to lose control of 
the Chinese market and of the Pacific Ocean. Why 
should we be jealous of American trade in the Far 
East when it forms but a bagatelle of the whole 
amount of some two billion dollars, of which 
Great Britain's share is no less than a fourth? If 
our ambition were to monopolise the Celestial or 
any other Eastern market, as we are suspected of 
wishing to do, we would contest with more 
important rivals than the Americans. 

Control of the Pacific! What does this high- 
soimding phrase mean, anyhow? May we not say 
with Professor Coolidge that the grandiloquent ex- 
pressions ''dominion of the seas," "mastery of the 
Pacific," and the like, are mere claptrap? If the 
control of an ocean means as much as was implied 
in the boastful message of Kaiser Wilhelm to 
Emperor Nicholas, in which he calls himself the 
Admiral of the Atlantic and the Czar the Admiral 
of the Pacific, — that phrase may be dispensed with 
as an empty bit of rhetoric. Who is the lord of 
the Atlantic? Who controls it, and who are de- 
barred from its area of 35,000,000 square miles? 
What national flag or flags can attain so gigantic a 
size as to cover the vast expanse of the Pacific, which 
is twice as large as the Atlantic? Our school child- 
ren are as familiar as are yours with the story of 
King Canute vainly commanding the waves to re- 
tire. Let the United States increase her navy to a 
size commensurate with her greatness, — it will ac- 



American Inflxience 313 

centuate her presence in Asia. Let her steamships 
plough the ocean lengthwise and crosswise, it will 
make possible a swifter and larger exchange not 
only of trade but of cultural influences between the 
East and the West. Let the Stars and Stripes dot 
the Ocean of Peace as constellations strew the firm- 
ament above, — and I assure you that they harmon- 
ise well with the sun-flags of Japan. Never will 
the sun and stars collide in their orbits. 

The six hundred million souls, comprising one- 
third of the human race, living on the borders of 
this great Ocean, will hail the ensign of the Union — 
as long as it is unfurled in the cause of human free- 
dom and universal justice and individual develop- 
ment, — in one word, of the moral principles for 
which America stands ; for I believe, that, paradox- 
ical as it may seem at first sight, it is through the 
young civilisation of the United States that the 
old East will receive the freshest moral impetus. 

At present one perceives in the Orient two cur- 
rents of thought flowing from the Occident, mould- 
ing the rising generation. One is derived from 
the continent of Europe, especially from Slavic 
and Romance literature and art, making for skep- 
ticism and decadence, often pessimistic, negative, 
and destructive; the other, derived from the 
indefatigable spirit of the Anglo-Saxon race, con- 
structive, robust, forever ready to be up and 
doing with a "heart within and God o'erhead." 

Nor are the introduction and spread of the moral 
sentiments of the Anglo-Saxon race in the Far East 



314 The Japanese Nation 

like ' ' the grafting of a bamboo shoot upon the stock 
of a pine," as we term incongruities. Psychology 
shows, and experience demonstrates, that the theory 
of race antipodalism is untenable. There is a tie of 
brotherhood between an English gentleman and a 
Japanese samurai. By the introduction or adoption 
of an Occidental standard of ethics, is not meant 
a blind acceptance of alien culture. Its purport is 
to express in the more modem and universal terms 
of the West, the thoughts and feelings that have 
been the heritage of the Orient for centuries past. 
A man of high reputation for scholarship and 
character, in summing up impressions of his recent 
travels in the East, stated his belief that neither 
China nor Japan will be Westernised. Professor 
Hart, when he so expressed himself, had chiefly in 
mind outward manners and customs and social 
institutions, and I concur largely in his judgment. 
But it is none the less true that even in these 
exterior manifestations of culture, the East can no 
longer defy the ascendency of the West, notably of 
America. How can it be otherwise? The per- 
forations made in the walls of Asiatic exclusivism 
have been deliberately, carefully, and constantly 
enlarged from within. The very men who reared 
the ramparts have razed them with their own 
hands for the more rapid and voluminous inflow of 
the streams of Western culture. Osmosis on a 
gigantic scale has set in, and even though as Pro- 
fessor Hart says, the East and the West may never 
reahse uniformity of social customs and insti- 



American Inflxaence 315 

tutions, they can and will attain to iinity of pur- 
pose and unanimity of thought. 

If until the advent of Gushing to China, and of 
Perry to Japan, the American advance in the East 
had been repulsed like a wavelet that dashes in 
vain against a rock, the great tide of Western 
civilisation has since then, "without rest, without 
haste," been rolling on, laving the shores of Asia, 
surging over her rocks, filling her rivers and creeks 
with the eternal freshness and irresistible force of 
the swelling sea. As in a few years the waters of 
the Atlantic will mingle with the waters of the 
Pacific, the civilisation conceived in the womb of 
Asia, born on the shores of the Mediterranean and 
brought to maturity by the denizens of the Atlantic 
coasts, will soon enrich the venerable civilisation 
of its primal home, and thus make complete its 
circuit. 

The Pacific awaits with open arms the coming 
of the Atlantic. We shall greet her with the words 
of Byron: 

" Thou glorious mirror, where the Almighty's form 
Glasses itself in tempests ; in all time, 
Calm or convulsed, — ^in breeze, or gale, or storm, 
Icing the pole, or in the torrid clime 
Dark-heaving; boundless, endless, and sublime. 
The image of Eternity, — the throne 
Of the Invisible!" 



APPENDIX 

PEACE OVER THE PACIFIC 

[Delivered at the Leland Stanford, Jr., Uuiversity, September, 

1911] 

I CONSIDER it a great kindness on your part to invite 
me to this institution, whose fame as a contributor 
to knowledge has reached all quarters of the globe. 
I am conscious of the rare honour you have conferred 
upon me by so doing. I have accepted the invitation, 
however, not simply because I feel it an honour to do 
so, but because I feel myself under double obligation 
to this distinguished academic body. There is no 
institution of learning outside of our native country 
which has so many of my compatriots studying under 
such favourable circumstances as those I see around 
me. If in some parts of California you build your 
gates too narrow for our people to enter, here, at least, 
I see the portals wide open to welcome mankind ir- 
respective of colour. Here, at least, the American 
flag flies over every race of man, to assure equal justice 
and equal opportunity. It is certainly a pleasure to 
stand in your midst and to thank you in person for 
the generous welcome you have extended to my 
fellow countrymen. But there is still another circum- 
stance which puts me under obligation to you. Three 
weeks ago, I had the privilege of having your honoured 
and beloved president under my own roof. I had not 
had the pleasure of meeting him before, and I was 

316 



Peace over tHe Pacific 317 

delighted to make the acquaintance of this man, 
whose scientific achievements have placed him upon 
a pedestal of immortal fame, and who, nevertheless, 
has not lost a childlike simplicity of nature, whose 
arms are ever extended to unite the world in the 
bonds of peace. 

America has done much in educating Japan; but 
if there is any one message which you must send to 
us just at this juncture, it is the one which Dr. Jordan 
is carrying to my country ; for, owing to one reason or 
another, there seems to be afloat in the air the most 
mischievous and the most unfortunate of rumours re- 
garding a possible estrangement between the United 
States and Japan. I know that you, as members of 
the Leland Stanford Jr. University, have imbibed the 
spirit of peace and a general love of mankind. Why, 
these very walls preach peace and good- will to men, 
and do not make it incumbent upon a stranger to 
repeat what you have always heard ; but in the world 
outside the rumours are wild and loud. Many in- 
terests are involved in keeping them alive. "Most 
of them," very rightly said Dr. Brown in the Lake 
Mohonk conference last year, "most of them belong 
in the category of thoughts which are fathered by a 
wish. Men who fear and dislike the Japanese are 
eager to see some nation fight them." There are not 
a few business concerns which profit by agitation 
about war ; there are not a few individuals who utilise 
the falsest reports for their own promotion or profit; 
and there are not a few nations that would derive 
benefit from an outbreak betwixt your country and 
ours. I do not like to indulge in suspicion, but my 
suspicions are well grounded that many an individual, 
many a business concern, and many a nation is bent 



3i8 THe Japanese Nation 

upon stirring up strife between the two countries, 
solely from selfish motives. I do not charge any 
particular company with this crime ; but many a com- 
pany can get good orders for ship-building materials 
and armament and provisions, simply by inciting a 
war-scare. 

While the peace-loving community is alarmed and 
distressed at the prospect of any rupture, the inter- 
ested parties grow fat at their expense. A scarecrow 
in a melon-patch may frighten away innocent birds, 
but a thief may be hiding himself under the scare- 
crow itself. When I reflect that the general public 
is so easily swayed by the fabrications and machina- 
tions of scare-mongers, the infinite credulity of the 
human mind strikes me as appalling. You and I, 
however, who enjoy the advantages of a higher 
education than is allotted to the average citizen, 
certainly ought to know better. Sift all this empty 
talk of war, and what have you left? Air-bubbles 
cannot be sifted, nor can mere froth and foam. Not 
a grain of reason is left that can be given as a just 
occasion for war, whereas there is every reason to 
believe that the two nations which border the Pacific 
are united by bonds of friendship stronger than those 
that bind any other two nations. You may say, 
that sounds all very well, but what about racial dif- 
ferences? Is there not already a Rassen-Kampf 
(race struggle)? Furthermore, there is no legal 
instrument that unites the two nations in permanent 
peace; no alliance, no arbitration treaty. But, my 
friends, there are ties that bind more closely than blood. 
There are words that join us more strongly than 
treaties and documents. If you doubt this, cast 
your glance upon the history of American- Japanese 



Peace over tHe Pacific 319 

intercourse from its very beginning, or, if you can 
afford more time, study it page by page, and you can 
draw a conclusion for yourself that the alpha and 
omega of this history is exhausted in the one word — • 
Peace. 

In the whole course of this history, you have always 
taken the active side ; we have always maintained the 
passive. You have helped us in our dehut into the 
society of nations; you have always chaperoned us 
in our youthful career; and though gratitude is out- 
side the category of political virtues, our national 
memory keeps alive the good-will that America has 
always manifested in her dealings with us. I am 
not so unsophisticated as to believe that Commodore 
Perry's expedition was prompted by an impulse of 
unalloyed Christian charity. I know that its motive 
was the advantage to be derived from possessing a 
coaling station, a refuge for the American sailors and 
waifs, and from the extension of commerce; but I also 
believe that it was the desire of the United States 
Government to effect its purpose in the kindliest 
manner. From his own account, we are aware that 
Commodore Perry was not always peacefully dis- 
posed. More than once did he ask his Government 
whether he might resort to arms, should diplomacy 
prove unavailing. As often was he told to refrain 
from using force. Because Perry succeeded in what 
was at that time regarded as an impossible task, by 
luckily avoiding bloodshed, he is called the benefactor 
of our country. From what he himself stated about 
his real attitude of mind, it seems that peaceful means 
were imposed upon him by his Government. We 
have erected a monument to his memory on the spot 
where he first landed, and it is far from me to detract 



320 



THe Japanese Nation 



one iota from the honour due his name, but we can 
call him the benefactor of our country only by a 
rhetorical stretching of the term. That term is more 
deservedly appHed to the man and to the Govern- 
ment that stayed his hand from possible violence, 
and as long as the United States Government is a 
government of the people, by the people, and for the 
people, the gentle feeling of gratitude ought to go out, 
as it does, to you as a nation. And this incident in 
the life of Perry ought to teach us that whatever 
military and naval men may say, as long as public 
opinion, as long as you — men, women, and children — ■ 
keep up the peaceful tradition of your fathers, the 
waters of the Pacific will remain calm and unbroken. 

The American who came after Perry was indeed 
the type and in very deed the representative of 
Americans, of just and true Americans. 

Townsend Harris, a merchant of New York, was 
dispatched to Japan, the first Minister representing 
the United States. A man of stern rectitude and 
gentlest powers of persuasion, he, indeed, more than 
any other, deserves the epithet of benefactor ; because 
in all his dealings with us, the weaker party, he never 
took advantage of our ignorance, but formulated a 
treaty with the strictest sense of justice. He did not 
hesitate to sacrifice the many advantages which his 
country would gain by apparently honest means, if 
he saw that there would be undue loss for Japan. 
After him there were many representatives of this 
country, and a large majority did credit both to their 
people and to the cause of justice and humanity at 
large. Names such as Bingham, Hubbard, and Buck 
are still remembered, as will be that of your last 
Ambassador, Mr. O'Brien, with deep respect and 



Peace over tKe Pacific 321 

aifection. As I have said, you have been the active 
party in our diplomatic relations and it was fortunate, 
not only for us and for the other countries of the Far 
East, but for every friend of peace and justice, that 
your envoys did not represent merely their Govern- 
ment in Washington, but the cause of humanity as 
well. We are nowadays prone to forget, in our 
enthusiasm for nationality, that there is a cause 
higher and nobler than nationality. It is said that 
the Americans and the Japanese are the two most 
patriotic nations on the face of the globe; that they 
are most sensitive to national honour and interest; 
that they are most easily moved by any appeal to 
their patriotism; and it is no wonder that we are 
alike in this respect, for we are the youngest of nations. 
No other peoples feel as keenly as do we that we have 
made our respective countries what they are. 

It is the bounden duty of every individual who looks 
upon national responsibility as though it were a per- 
sonal one, to maintain the amicable relation that has 
existed between us. Sometimes suspicion creeps in 
between us, and sometimes arguments threaten to rend 
us apart. So-called scientists declare from the plat- 
form that races so diverse as the White and the Yellow 
cannot live under the same sky, apparently forgetting 
that there is no race known under the sun which has 
not enjoyed citizenship under the Stars and Stripes. 
It has been one of the grandest and most exalting 
sights that can be witnessed, to see thousands of im- 
migrants, representing more than fifty distinct nation- 
alities, pouring into America, and to see those streams 
of varied hues merging in a short time into one cur- 
rent of republican citizenship. To exclude a race on 
account of racial difference is to admit the incapacity 
21 



322 THe Japanese Nation 

of American institutions to assimilate all races — 
as was once the boast of the country. I cannot be- 
lieve that the present generation of Americans has 
lost the power which its forefathers possessed and 
exercised, under conditions more strenuous. 

One of the greatest sons of California, Mr Burbank, 
has intimated in his Training of the Human Plant, 
that, the wider the field for selection or for sports to 
grow and the more chances there are for the crossing 
of species, the greater is the probability of evolving 
a plant of importance; and Mr. Kidd states that as 
yet no scientific standard has been discovered to 
gauge the superiority of one race over another. Every 
race has traits which, when contributed, make the 
human plant richer and higher. 

Then there are economists who whisper to you that 
cheap labour must be excluded, who forget that 
labour is only one of the many factors of production. 
If it is true that, the cheaper the labour, the greater 
is the necessity for its exclusion, why not, as Bastiat 
would say, burn all the latest inventions in machinery? 

Then, again, there are moralists who are anxious 
lest the good manners of their own people should 
be spoiled by lower, alien standards of morality. This 
is an old argument, which was current as far back as 
the Middle Ages, and while examples are not wanting 
to give colour to this solicitude, proofs are on record 
that a strong nation exercises beneficent influence not 
only upon those who come thither from afar, but 
upon neighbouring nations. And certainly America, 
in the prime of its national manhood, can exert a su- 
perior influence upon other peoples. 

Of all the reasons which are given for the aliena- 
tion of Japan from America, the one which has 



Peace over tHe Pacific 323 

seemed most disturbing to the American people at 
large is the assertion that the Japanese are incapable 
of assimilation. Lafcadio Hearn has given currency 
to the term "race antipodalism," the belief that the 
Japanese are psychologically so far removed that, the 
more you educate them even in Western knowledge, 
the farther they will diverge from you in thought. 
Hearn with all his wonderful insight into Japanese 
nature, or perhaps because of his enthusiasm for things 
Japanese, may have thought that he was serving 
the cause of our people by making them appear as a 
unique nation, and his opinion is echoed by many who 
fling it into our very face. Unfortunately, there are 
rampant Chauvinists among us, as there are every- 
where else, who pride themselves upon being different 
from the rest of the world ; who exaggerate small dif- 
ferences, and who insist upon diverging from the path 
the Western nations pursue; who identify idiopathy 
with native strength, and who, in so doing, exalt 
national foibles into national virtues, and purposely 
keep themselves aloof. 

I myself have no patience with those whose mental 
vision never reaches beyond their limited horizon. 
They have failed to read in history that the peoples 
who called themselves special favourites of their 
Creator, who prided themselves upon what they pos- 
sessed and upon what they did not possess, fell easy 
victims to the barbarians, Gentiles, and the heretics 
whom they were wont to despise. The time has long 
passed when a nation could live in seclusion and iso- 
lation. The modern age does not tolerate apartness. 
It grinds down peculiarities and will even coerce 
nations to surrender their characteristics until they 
learn to associate with others on a common, equal 



324 THe Japanese Nation 

basis of right and wrong, of good and bad. I confess 
that the two great wars in which we came out tri- 
umphant have turned the head of some of our weaker 
brethren. They believe that our success was due ex- 
pressly to the spirit of Bushido, the remnant of that 
excellent teaching which formed the samurai's code of 
honour. I myself feel partly responsible for dissemi- 
nating this idea. I do not regret that I wrote regard- 
ing it and in behalf of it, and what I have written and 
spoken about it I have no mind to take back ; but I do 
not share the views of the Chauvinists that the spirit 
of Bushido is the peculiar monopoly of our people; 
neither do I share the view that it is the highest 
system of morality that man can conceive or construct. 
I know its weakness. I know all its temptations to 
misinterpretation and degeneration, and I should feel 
a regret too deep for words, if my people failed to see 
that the new wine requires a new wine-skin. I should 
be most sorry if the noble ethics of Bushido were con- 
verted by bigots into an anti-foreign instrument. I 
know that I am exposing myself to grave suspicion 
and misunderstanding on the part of my countrymen, 
as though I were catering to the anti- Japanese effu- 
sions of some Americans by dilating upon the seamy 
side of what usually passes as patriotism; but patri- 
otism itself is a word so grossly abused! Doctor 
Samuel Johnson said long ago that this word is the 
resort of the scoundrel. Especially among Chauvin- 
ists is it freely used as a substitute for reason and 
argument. Crimes, robbery, and slaughter are com- 
mitted under the spell of its name. What common 
sense and morality cannot justify is exonerated under 
its sanction. Greed of territory and wars ensuing 
therefrom are vindicated by an appeal to it. So much 



Peace over tHe Pacific 325 

so, that some one has recently defined it not as love of 
land but as "love of more land." Two such patriotic 
nations as Japan and America, unless they are on their 
guard, can easily deceive themselves into believing 
that in some territory which they covet, whether 
mutually or separately, they may come into conflict. 
We were highly amused at the strict surveillance of 
American authorities over the Japanese in the Philip- 
pines. It is too soon to forget the agreement signed 
November, 1908, between the two countries, through 
which instrument we mutually disclaimed all aggres- 
sive designs, in consequence of which each Government 
respects the territorial possessions of the other on the 
Pacific. This should be a sufficient guarantee that 
Japan entertains no ambition to acquire the Philip- 
pines or Hawaii. Equally amusing sound to our ears 
such articles as often appear in different magazines in 
regard to Japanese artifice in China. Now and then 
appears a book from the American press by some so- 
called authority on Manchuria: full of suspicions but 
with no facts to substantiate them, yet always wind- 
ing up with the hackneyed conclusion — Japan is steal- 
ing American trade in China. 

Americans ought to know by this time that, however 
mistaken it may be in some directions, our patriotism 
is not love for more land. My contention is, on the 
contrary, that our patriotism is confined too narrowly 
within the home land and feeds itself upon the insular 
spirit, which does not see that there are regions 
untouched by man where, if they but work, our 
people will be welcome. Just as nature abhors a 
vacuum, social economy abhors a dearth of labour 
when land and capital can be had in abundance. 
Look at those orchard hills and valleys where the 



326 TKe Japanese Nation 

fruits are ripe for the hand of the picker; look at those 
plains where the sugar beets are ready for the weeder 
and the thousands of acres grown with grain and 
vegetables, all waiting for the labour of men; certainly 
California needs more labour. The State has indeed 
been for years in the condition of "chronic labour 
famine." A great state of over 165,000 square 
miles, larger than the area of Japan itself by some 
10,000 square miles, and provided with only two and 
one- third million of population, equal to one-twenty- 
second part of our own, with a density of only fifteen 
per square mile, must depend upon foreign labour 
for the proper cultivation of its soil. Mr. McKenzie's 
report says that Japanese labour is responsible for 
nearly $30,000,000 worth of produce in this State. It 
is depressing to think of the vast wealth lying unex- 
plored and unexploited in this great State, so abund- 
antly blessed by nature, simply because of lack of 
labour. I wish some Stanford man would take up 
for scientific treatment, — perhaps under direction of 
such an authority as Professor Miller, the subject of 
the economic loss sustained by California on account 
of Orientophobia. Some new facts may come to light, 
as was the case in the study of a former member of 
your university. Miss Mary Roberts Coolidge, whose 
impartial researches made clear many points per- 
taining to Chinese labour. I shall not be at all sur- 
prised if in the near future, when prejudice shall have 
exhausted its breath in vociferation, and when the 
Orientophobic scales shall have fallen from the eyes 
of labour rings — California may once more open its 
doors for our people. I know too well the awful 
power of prejudice, but I also know that economic 
law is stronger than prejudice. What California 



Peace over tHe Pacific 327 

lacks can be supplied by Japan, and what the super- 
abundant population of Japan, the density of which is 
three hundred and thirty-six per square mile, lacks — 
namely, field for employment — California can offer 
in abundance. Far from there being any conflict, 
there is actually harmony of interests, and a little 
concession on both sides will surely do away with the 
few obstacles that may be imposed. Amicable solu- 
tion of any questions arising from these obstacles is 
certainly possible, if only the minds of both parties 
are open to it. 

We have already gone a long way toward the solution 
of the problem, having adopted a method which is clear 
and summary. To put it concisely, we have taken 
upon ourselves the duty of restricting immigration to 
your shores. Without any treaty or convention, purely 
by a gentlemen's agreement, this has been accom- 
plished. The result is patent to all. I have just come 
across the Pacific on one of our largest steamers. She 
was laden to her fullest capacity with silk and tea; 
but the steerage was almost empty, and the few Japan- 
ese passengers in it were bound to a French island of 
the Lesser Antilles. The rest consisted of a number of 
labourers from the Philippines, new American subjects 
who were, of course, admitted free of conditions. 
But to return to my Japanese immigration problem, 
though a practical solution has been reached for the 
time being, there is some doubt as to the permanency 
of the present arrangement, for a proviso regarding 
immigration at the end of Act II. of the old treaty was 
omitted in the new treaty made public last spring. 
Thus the whole situation depends upon the spirit of 
concession on the side of Japan, upon her magnanim- 
ity, as Professor Coolidge of Harvard puts it. "The 



328 TKe Japanese Nation 

arrangement," he says, "which will give the United 
States the protection it demands, will rest not on the 
efficiency of its own laws, but on the fulfilment of 
obligations voluntarily assumed by a foreign state.'* 
However willing Japan may be to continue the same 
course of restriction, America "cannot depend in- 
definitely on the generosity, real or presumed, of a 
neighbour." 

Professor Coolidge is certainly right, speaking as a 
jurist, — just as Professor Von Hoist was right in 
speaking as a publicist, of the dangers threatening 
the United States through what its Constitution has 
not provided for. At the same time, if a bona fide 
check to emigration is scrupulously carried out in 
Japan, it will in a few years become, as our Minister 
of Foreign Affairs said during the last session of our 
Parliament, the established policy of the Empire ; then, 
the question will bother neither you nor us, for then 
there will be no question. Good- will can put to rights 
the confusion which an appeal to law can only make 
more confused. I believe there is not a single case 
that cannot be settled by friendly means better than 
by legal procedure. I think it was Mr. Rowell who 
expressed his solicitude lest, in the absence of a treaty 
stipulation, the act of a rowdy boy who might feel like 
smashing a Japanese window should lead to interna- 
tional complications, or at least jeopardise amity 
between the two Powers. If the authorities in Cali- 
fornia are as genuinely disposed as are the Japanese 
to settle such difficulties amicably, the police and the 
Court of Justice ought to be able to do so in five min- 
utes. It is also feared that a demagogue may arise 
in Japan and make of a trifling incident an issue of 
international magnitude. I am sorry to own that 



Peace over tKe Pacific 



329 



there are demagogues in my country as in yours, 
and fire-spitting journalists, too, and hair-splitting 
jurists as well; but a foreign policy, such as the policy 
of restriction, once established and efficiently carried 
out, is hardly likely to be upset by them. If I may 
be allowed to express my private opinion, "that policy 
is too vigorously and too conscientiously put into 
practice ; so that some of our most promising students 
are debarred from the advantage of American educa- 
tion and some of the most intelligent working-men 
are lost to American economy. I may add this opin- 
ion of mine is shared by many American residents in 
Japan. 

But, pardon me, I have sojourned too long on 
the California coast, because my mind is full of 
California impressions. Though I landed here only 
last Saturday, such strange sights and sounds as I did 
not perceive twenty-eight years ago, when I first 
passed through San Francisco on my way to Balti- 
more, overwhelmed my senses. There was then no talk 
of war; no word of ill-will was heard, no sound of ship- 
wrights working on a Dreadnaught, no sound of ma- 
sons building a fort, no din of trumpet or of drum; all 
was peace along the Pacific. I can scarcely believe my 
own eyes and ears, so stupendously changed is the 
tone of American life. I wonder if this is progress. 
For myself, I cannot believe so. I live in a land 
famed for its soldiers and sailors; but I cannot free 
my mind from the thought that armament and mili- 
tarism and what they bring in their train, will ulti- 
mately spell the ruin of the nations that play with 
them. 

So, as a son of Japan, and as a well-wisher of 
America, it is my sincere hope that all these rumours 



330 THe Japanese Nation. 

of war may prove but a transient dream, a horrible 
nightmare that passes with the coming of the dawn. 
May we earnestly pray, and diligently work toward 
the end, that, wherever else war-clouds may darken 
this earth, lasting peace shall reign over the Pacific. 



INDEX 



Adams, John Quincy, 262 

Agnosticism, 119 

Agriculture, 209-213; animals, 
212-213; arable land, 35, 
209, 219; capital, 210; col- 
leges of, 191; staples, 213- 
214; taxation, 212 

Agricultural College, 191 

Ainus (aborigines), 86 

American-Japanese intercourse, 
258-277; effect of whaling 
on, 262, 278-279; unsuc- 
cessful attempts to open 
Japan, 263-265, 268-270 

American-Japanese relations, 
278-299; anti-foreign period, 
283-284; Prince Katsura on, 
298-299; services to Japan, 
284-288 

American influence, 300-315; 
in education, 182, 184 

Anglo-Saxon influence, 183, 
186, 313 

Army conscription, 78 

Art: Oriental and Greek, 5; 
Seiho (painter), 10; of Heian 
period, 61; of Kamakura 
period, 63; attitude of Jap- 
anese towards, 108-109 

Asia. See East 



B 



Banks, 170-173 
Bathing, 28, 153 
Biddle, Commodore, 268-270 
Black Current (Kuro-Shiwo) , 
263 



Brown, Dr., 317 

Buddhism: absorbs Shinto, 
142; adopted, 56-57; doc- 
trines, 145-148; history, 138- 
139; influence, 58-59, 62, 
140; sects, 139, 14T 

Bushido, 155-157, 166, 173- 
174; author's valuation of, 
324; and martyrdom, 69 



Calendar, 80 

California, 44, 290-291, 326 

Character of Japanese, 107, 
114-115 

China: early communication, 
55; influence, 56; in Formosa 
235-236; regeneration of, 
302-303, 308; trade with 
Japan, 228 

Chinese Bank clerks, 1 70-1 71 

Chosen. See Korea. 

Christianity: i6th and 17th 
century, 68-71; present sta- 
tus, 120 

Civil Service, 195-197 

Classes, Social, 209; abolished, 

Climate: Japan, 28-30; Tokyo, 
38; Hokkaido, 38 

Colleges: Agricultural, 191; 
Commercial, 190; National 
(Koto-Gakko) , 189; Normal, 
185 

Confucius and Confucianism: 
Analects introduced, 55; in- 
fluence, 73, 158; not a 
religion, 119 

Creation, Mythical, 51 



331 



332 



Index 



Commerce. See Trade 
Commercial College, 190 
Commercial morality, 170- 
173,228-230 

D 

Death Rate in Formosa: 
opium smokers, 244; pest, 
247 

Debt, War, 217 

Diet, 29, 213-215 

Divorce, 164 

Doshisha [Christian College], 
198 

E - 

Earthquakes, 31 ; influence, 32- 
33; science, 192 

East and West, 1-20; con- 
trasted, 11-12, 204-205; di- 
vision and difference, 7-9 

Economic conditions, 204-230; 
attitude towards economic 
activity, 206; commercial 
morality, 228-230; cost of 
living, 216; finance, 217; 
foreign trade, 226-228; in- 
dustries, 220-223 ; labour 
223-226 

Education, 81, 176-203; 
Charter Oath on, 77; ele- 
mentary, 183-184; expenses, 
186, 194; female, 162, 185; 
higher, 189-192; Imperial 
Rescript on, 200-201 ; moral, 
198-199; Samurai, 179; 
technical, 190; Tokugawa 
period, 72 

Emigration: California, 291- 
294; Formosa, 219-220 

Emperor Mutsuhito: Coro- 
nation, 76; grants constitu- 
tion, 79; on education, 180, 
200-201 ; Proclamation, 76 

English, 186-187, 190-191 

Europe. See West 



Family, 157-161. [5*66 Divorce, 
Marriage, Women, etc.] 



Farmer: status of, 209; statis- 
tics, 212 

Feudalism, 63 

Finance, 208, 217, 223, 226 

Flowers, 39, 42; arrangement, 
64, 72, 166, 187 

Foreign trade, 226-228 

Formosa [Taiwan], 232-257; 
brigandage, 237, ,241-242, 
248-252 ; colonial policy, 253- 
257; emigration to, 219- 
220; geography, 233-234; 
improvements, 253; indus- 
tries, 252-253; intercourse, 
235; the name, 232-233; 
occupation, 237; opium, 243 
-244; pest, 247; sanitation, 
244-247 

Fukuzawa, 198 



G 



Geisha, 165-166 
Goto, Baron, 219, 243 
Government modernized, 79- 

82 
Grant, General, 285 



H 



Hamy, Prof, [craniologist], 89 

Harris, Townsend, 282-283, 
320 , 

Hart, Prof., 218, 314 

Heian period, 61 

History: ancient, 50-56; early 
mediaeval, 56-63; late me- 
diaeval, 63-71; modern, 71- 
75; present, 75-82; of Bud- 
dhism, 138-139 

Horses, 213 



Immigration: California, 291- 
294» 327-328; Korea, 219; 
prehistoric, 42, 53, 87 

Imitativeness, 103-106 

Imperial University, 191 

Imperialism, i 



Index 



333 



Industries, 220-225; arts and 
crafts, 221-222; capital, 223; 
labour, 220, 224-225 ; re- 
sources, 220, 223 

Inventiveness, 105 

I to, Prince, 254 

lyeyasu Tokugawa, 71, 135 



Japan: area, 209; geography, 
21-47; isolation, 42-43, 73; 
mission of Japan 45; name, 

52 
Jordan, Dr., 317 



K 



Kabayama, Count, 237, 239 
Kamakura, 63 
Katsura, Prince, 239 
Keio University, 192, 197 
Kido, 181-182 
King, Mr., 263-267, 300, 304 
Kodama, 219, 240-241 
Korea (Chosen): annexed, 

231; emigration to, 219; 

influence, 57-58; invaded, 

55; Japanese justice in, 254; 

prehistoric immigration from 

87 
Kyoto, 3,6, 58, 61-63 
Kwang-tung, 23 1 



Labour: Japan, 223-226; Cali- 
fornia, 325-327 

Language, 99-102 

Laws, 80 

Li Hung Chang, 236, 242-244, 
252 

Literature : Buddhistic in- 
fluence, 59; foreign, 102-103; 
Heian period, 63; Kamakura 
period, 63-64; poetry, 112- 
113 

Loti, Pierre, 154 



M 

Magdalena Bay, 289 
Manchuria, 219; Open Door 

in, 295-297 
Marriage, 159-163 
Mito, Prince of, 21-1 
Mori, Viscount, 183 
Miinsterberg, Prof., 307 
Murray, Dr. David, 182 
Music, 110-112 
Mutsuhito. See Emperor Mut- 

suhito 



N 



Nagasaki, 259 

Nagoya, 35 

Nara, 57; period, 61 

Naruse, Mr., 185 

National College {Koto- 

Gakko), 189 
Navy, 79, 81, 253 
Neeshima, Joseph, 198 
Nogi, General, 239 
Normal College, 185 



O 



Okubo, 181 

Okuma, 198 

Open Door in Manchuria, 295- 

297 
Opium in Formosa, 243-^244 
Osaka, 35 



Pacific Ocean, 46-47, 312-313 

Panama Canal, 47, 304 

Parliament, 79 

Patriotism, 325 

Peasants: statistics, 212; sta- 
tus, 209 

Perry, Commodore, 74, 279, 
319-320; sentiment in 
America towards his expedi- 
tion, 280-282 

Philippines, 311, 325 ^ 

Physical characteristics, 92-97 



334 



Index 



Poetry, 112-113 
Politeness, 167 
Population, 219 
Porter, Commodore, 262 
Psalmanazar, George, 234 

R 

Race: characteristics, 83-115; 
differences, 318, 322; in 
Japan, 24-25 ; question, 3 

Railways, Nationalisation of, 
36 

Rainfall, 28 

Rein, Dr., 98 

Religion, Japanese Concep- 
tion of, 1 1 7-1 19; see Bud- 
dhism, Shinto 

Resources, 220, 223 

Restoration, 75-82 

Revenue, 217 

Rice, 29, 213, 220 

Rivers, 34, 37-38 

Roman Catholicism, 68-71 

Roosevelt, 288, 310 



Saghalien, 209, 219, 254 

Samurai, 64, 68, 78, 205-209, 
314; moral code, 1 55-1 57 

Schools: elementary, 183, 186; 
mission, 185, 187; secondary, 
184-185 

Scidmore, Miss, 90 

Scott, Prof. M. M., 182 

Shimonoseki : bombardment , 
302; Treaty, 237; indemnity 
returned, 284-285 

vShinto, 73, 121-138; and Bud- 
dhism, 141-144; future life, 
123, 125-128; peculiarities, 
131-133; shrines, 128-129, 
144; sin, 123-125, 135, 136 

ohogunate, 71-75 

Socialism, State, 196, 218 

Stature, 92-93 



Stoicism, 166-167 
Student life, 192-194 



Taihoku, 242, 246 

Taiwan. See Formosa 

Tea: beverage, 215; export, 

227; Formosa, 252 
Tea ceremony, 64, 72, 187-188 
Temperature, 38 
Tokugawa Shoguns, 71, 75, 178 
Tokyo climate, 35 
Trade, Foreign, 225-227 
Tsuda, Miss, 185 



U 



Universities, Imperial, 191 ; 
Private, 192, 197 



V 



Vegetables, 2 1 4-2 1 5 
Volcanoes. See Earthquakes 

W 

War talk, 14-17, 317, 297-298 
Waseda University, 198 
Wealth, 208, 223; of emigrants 

to America, 292-293; of 

peasants, 212 
West, influence, 313; the term, 

4 

Whaling, 267, 278 

Women, beauty of, 96-97; 
education, 185; Nara period, 
59; Samurai, 67; status, 162 



Yellow Journalism, 14 
Yellow Peril, 304 
Yokohama, 42 
Yoritomo, 63 



Jt Selection from the 
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Bushido 

The Soul of Japan 

An Exposition of Japanese Thought 

By 

Inazo Nitobe, A.M., Ph.D. 

Professor in the Imperial University of Tokyo 

President of the First National College, Japan 

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